THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


IN  MEMORY  OF 
EDWIN  CORLE 


PRESENTED  BY 
JEAN  CORLE 


c 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  THE  POLYGLOT 
EMPIRE 


AUSTRIA  HUNGARY: 

THE  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 


BY 


WOLF  VON  SCHIERBRAND,  Ph.D.,  LL.D. 

AUTHOR  OF 
'RUSSIA,  HER  STRENGTH  AND  HER  WEAKNESS,"  "AMERICA,  ASIA  AND  THE 

PACIFIC,"  "Germany:  the  welding  of  a  world  power" 


WITH  A  MAP  IN  COLOURS 


NEW  YORK 

FREDERICK  A.  STOKES  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1917,  by 
Frederick  A.  Stokes  Company 


All  rights  reserved,  including  thai  of  translation 
into  foreign  languages 


PREFACE 

First,  a  disclaimer.  This  is  not  a  mere  war  book. 
There  have,  if  anything,  been  too  many  of  these.  All 
necessarily  suffered  from  the  deficiencies  of  war  books. 
The  material  had  been  more  or  less  hurriedly  gathered ; 
personal  prejudices  warped  judgment ;  the  view  was  re- 
stricted, and  so  were  the  sources  of  information  on  which 
it  was  based;  lastly,  haste  was  again  the  dominant  fea- 
ture in  the  final  task  of  writing.  The  result  was,  per- 
haps, readable,  but  could  scarcely  be  termed  dependable. 

During  the  four  years  I  resided  in  Austria — 1912  till 
a  few  months  ago — I  enjoyed  full  opportunities  of  study- 
ing land  and  people  at  close  range.  Trips  to  Hungary 
and  to  the  Austrian  provinces  enabled  me  to  supplement 
or  revise  this  knowledge  on  important  points.  The 
war  came.  Again  there  was  a  total  shifting  of  scene, 
a  complete  alteration  in  modes  of  thought  and  action,  in 
aims  confessed.  I  lived  close  to  these  people,  as  one  of 
themselves  in  most  essentials;  through  trying  days  and 
weary  months  sharing  with  them  the  crust  of  bread  as 
well  as  their  joys  and  sorrows;  looking  into  their  hearts, 
hearing  them  speak  and  moan  and  weep.  I  saw  some 
actual  fighting.  I  witnessed  some  hunger  riots.  Of  some 
of  these,things  and  others  indeed,  the  book  has  a  word 
to  say. 

Among  the  books  that  have  appeared  in  the  recent  or 
more  remote  past  dealing  with  the  chief  aspects  of  the 
Dual  Monarchy,  the  author  recalls  none  that  set  out 
along  the  same  path  or  with  the  same  purpose.     This 

V 


2037854 


vi  PREFACE 

purpose  in  the  main  has  been:  To  afford  the  reader  a 
sufficient  outline  of  the  process  of  growth  and  accretion 
active  in  creating  the  Austria-Hungary  of  to-day,  of  the 
natural  resources  of  the  land  and  of  the  vital  character- 
istics of  the  many-tongued  population.  Next,  to  point 
out  the  chief  problems  of  the  polyglot  nation,  inherently 
owing  to  the  peculiar  genesis  of  the  monarchy  as  a  whole, 
problems  so  knotty  and  deep-seated  that  their  non-solu- 
tion hitherto  has  gone  far  towards  wrecking  the  country 
as  an  independent  political  entity.  And  third,  to  define 
the  most  feasible  (and  perhaps  the  only)  means  of  allay- 
ing or  entirely  removing  these  difficulties,  as  these  means 
have  gradually  shaped  themselves  in  the  minds  of  the 
thinking  and  potential  elements  of  Austria-Hungary. 

Side  by  side  with  such  matter  as  tends  to  elucidate  this 
paramount  object,  there  also  appears  information  in  the 
body  of  this  book  which  may  interest  the  reader  for  its 
own  sake.  A  good  deal  of  it  rests  on  the  personal  im- 
pressions of  the  writer.  Some  readers  may  like  the  book 
the  better  for  that. 

One  more  remark.  I  think  I  may  honestly  claim  for 
myself  to  be  actuated  by  no  conscious  bias  in  dealing  with 
political,  social  and  racial  questions  discussed  here.  Cer- 
tainly none  has  swayed  my  judgment  in  looking  towards 
ultimate  ends.  The  political  reforms  urgently  called  for, 
both  in  Hungary  and  Austria,  to  bring  those  two  coun- 
tries abreast  of  the  times,  abreast  of  the  West,  are  not 
subject  to  opinion ;  they  are  demanded  by  the  facts  them- 
selves. Neither  has  my  sincere  liking  for  and  sympathy 
with  the  people  of  Austria-Hungary  blinded  me  to  their 
serious  failings ;  failings,  however,  which,  nearly  all  of 
them,  do  more  harm  to  themselves  than  to  others. 

The  scope  of  this  work  embraces  much  that,  heretofore, 
has  been  handled  not  at  all  or  else  wholly  in  desultory 


PREFACE  vii 

fashion.  I  venture  to  hope  that  the  book  may  do  some- 
thing towards  modifying  certain  erroneous  conceptions 
held  by  many  Americans  relative  to  Austria-Hungary.  I 
do  not  pretend,  however,  to  have  exhausted  the  theme  as 
a  whole.  Twice  the  space  would  not  suffice  for  that.  All 
the  same,  my  book  may  fulfil  a  useful  mission.  With  that 
hope  I  rest  content. 

W.  v.  3. 


CONTENTS 


Preface       

I.  General  Descriptive  Remarks  about  the  Dual 

ARCHY 

II.  How  the  Dual  Monarchy  Became  What  It  Is 

III.  Unique  Features  Forming  Part  of  the  Process 

IV.  Racial  Problems  Outlined  . 
V.  Inherent  Difficulties  of  It 

VI.  Centralisation  and  Decentralisation 

VII.  Solution  of  the  Enigma 

VIII.  Political  Life 

IX.  Causes  op  Political  Backwardness    . 

X.  The  Habsbuegs  and  Their  Family  Policy 

XI.  The  Imperial  Court       .... 

XII.  Austria-Hungary  during  the  War 

XIII.  The  Food  Question  and  Some  Others  . 

XIV.  Economic  Troubles  and  Their  Remedy 
XV.  Aid  to  Needy  and  Injured    . 

XVI.  Refuge  Camps  and  Barrack  Towns     . 

XVII.  Visits  to  War  Prisonfjis 

XVIII.  Stray  Facts  and  Personal  Experiences 

XIX.  Concluding  Remarks     .... 
Index        ....... 


MON- 


PAQB 

V 

1 

26 

44 

60 

74 

89 

99 

115 

136 

146 

156 

181 

203 

224 

240 

257 

276 

301 

320 

345 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  THE  POLYGLOT 
EMPIRE 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  THE 
POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

CHAPTEE  I 

GENEKAL  DESCEIPTIVE  REMARKS  ABOUT  THE  DUAL  MONARCHY 

Too  little  known  by  the  outside  world — Prediction  that  after  the  war 
American  tourists  and  lovers  of  sport  will  become  acquainted  with 
some  of  the  country — Beautiful  scenery;  the  Carpathians,  Transyl- 
vanian  Alps,  the  Switzerland  of  Austria,  the  Tyrol,  Styria  and  Ca- 
rinthia,  the  Wachau,  excelling  the  Rhine  Valley,  the  cave  wonders  of 
Carniola,  the  "Bohemian  Forest,"  wild  and  rugged  Bosnia  and  Her- 
cegovina,  the  picturesque  Dalmatian  coast,  the  Semmering,  with  its 
glaciers  just  a  step  from  Vienna — Big  game  and  fine  sport  every- 
where; bear  hunting  and  deer  stalking,  grouse,  capercailzie  and 
aquatic  birds  on  the  Narenta — Throughout  the  people  are  good- 
natured,  simple,  hospitable — Class  distinctions  and  caste  spirit — 
Korber  and  American  aid — Many  natural  resources  lying  fallow — 
"Water  and  electric  power — Mining — Urban  population — Vienna 
and  Budapest — School  system  and  higher  education — The  woman 
question — Marriage  and  the  State — Illegitimacy — Statistics — War 
the  great  leveller — Distinctive  traits  of  the  population — Worthy  of 
a  brighter  future. 

Among  the  amazing  things  about  Austria-Hungary  is 
undoubtedly  the  fact  that  this  beautiful  region  of  the 
globe  is  so  little  known  by  the  outside  world.  Of  course 
there  are  guide  books  which  tell  more  or  less  explicitly 
and  correctly  about  every  section  of  the  Dual  Monarchy. 

1 


2    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

It  is  not  tliat  I  mean.  What  I  do  mean  is  that,  of  that 
immensely  large  bodj^  of  tourists  and  lovers  of  sport  who 
annually,  especially  during  the  warm  season,  go  forth  to 
enjoy  the  excitement  of  travel,  the  rapid  change  of 
scenery,  the  bagging  of  ''big  game,"  the  delight  of  varied 
natural  attractions,  the  rubbing  of  elbows  with  races  un- 
known to  them  before,  the  study  of  quaint  and  pic- 
turesque customs  and  manners,  the  imbibing  of  sights 
and  things  of  beauty — that  of  this  whole  immense  army, 
crowding  in  normal  times  all  ocean  steamers  and  railway 
lines  and  mountain  paths,  but  such  a  sorry  fragment 
finds  its  way  to  Austria-Hungary.  For  it  can  be  predi- 
cated with  every  giiarantee  of  truth  that  in  all  those 
essentials  that  make  an  extensive  trip  worth  while  to 
the  discriminating  or  even  to  the  careless  and  thought- 
less throng,  the  lands  forming  jointly  Austria-Hungary 
are  among  the  most  deserving  and  remunerative.  Yet 
of  all  those  shoals  of  Americans  and  British  flooding  each 
summer  the  continent  of  Europe  for  recreation,  for  in- 
struction, or  for  the  sake  of  re-establishing  failing  health, 
barely  one  or  at  most  two  per  cent,  deem  it  wise  to  make 
a  special  tour  of  the  Danube  lands.  And  even  of  this 
small  percentage  few  extend  their  travels  beyond  brief 
passing  visits  to  Vienna,  Budapest  and,  at  most,  a  couple 
of  other  points  not  too  far  off  the  beaten  track.  To  any 
one  w^ho  has  had  the  exquisite  pleasure  of  peregrinating 
at  leisure  the  whole  of  Austria-Hungary  this  fact  seems 
a  marvel,  especially  when  one  remembers  that  in  these 
days,  when  to  sated  eyes  this  terrestrial  sphere  of  ours 
appears  to  shrink  more  and  more,  when  the  waste  spaces 
and  the  hitherto  inaccessible  or  unkno^vn  regions  of  the 
earth  are  rapidly  dwindling  or  entirely  disappearing, 
even  journeys  around  the  globe  waxing  stale,  and  when 
dangerous  excursions  to  the  interior  of  fever-haunted 


DESCRIPTIONS  ABOUT  DUAL  MONARCHY    3 

Africa,  to  the  etlier-picrcing  mountain  giants  of  Tibet  or 
Peru  are  accounted  commonplace,  Austria-Hungary  is 
still  allowed  to  remain  aside. 

And  I  know  whereof  I  speak.  For  before  settling  for 
a  rather  lengthy  residence  in  Austria-Hungary  I  found 
it  next  to  impossible  to  meet  in  this  country  with  any  one 
who  could  impart  to  me  such  enlightening  information  as 
I  craved,  reliable  and  detailed  information,  that  is,  on 
such  points,  for  example,  as  are  treated  of  in  this  book. 
Austria-Hungary  herself  has  been  asleep  for  the  space 
of  two  generations,  and  the  restless,  eager  world  has 
swept  by,  overlooking  in  its  programmes  of  travel  a  coun- 
try which  lay  within  easy  reach,  which  offered  the  re- 
sources of  civilisation,  often  of  luxury  and  utmost  com- 
fort, yet  was  practically  unknown.  And  the  undeniable 
fact  that  in  an  age  of  frenzied  publicity,  when  to  pro- 
claim the  advantages  one  has  to  offer  from  the  housetops 
is  held  both  virtue  and  necessity,  this  somnolent,  mostly 
silent  and  certainly  unobtrusive  Austria-Hungary  has 
put  her  light  under  a  bushel  and  has  half  good-naturedly, 
half  contemptuously  regarded  all  this  wholesale  adver- 
tising on  the  part  of  even  exotic  countries  as  mere  ''hum- 
bug," as  indecent  pushing,  has  had  much  to  do  with  her 
being  overlooked  in  the  rush  of  travel.  A  certain  aloof- 
ness, indeed,  a  certain  disdain  for  modern  methods  of 
attracting  the  tide  of  sight-seers  is  very  widespread 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  Austria-Hungary. 
It  often  takes  curious  forms.  Thus,  I  remember  that  not 
only  on  arriving  in  Vienna  and  proclaiming  my  intention 
of  remaining  there  a  good  bit  of  time,  but  afterwards  as 
well,  a  common  query  addressed  to  me,  rather  wonder- 
ingly,  was:  ''And  what  made  you  choose  Austria-Hun- 
gary as  your  objective?"    And  it  always  proved  rather 


4    AUSTEIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

difficult  to  furnish  a  satisfactory  explanation;  to  plead 
an  excuse,  so  to  speak. 

Again,  just  to  illustrate  the  odd  view  taken  of  the  busi- 
ness of  life,  I  will  cite  this  little  instance,  trifling  in  itself 
but  highly  characteristic.  During  a  brief  midsummer 
stay  in  the  Tyrol,  a  year  before  the  war,  I  was  housed  at 
an  inn  in  the  Zillerthal.  Mine  host  wore  a  grey  beard 
about  a  foot  long.  He  was  well-to-do,  almost  wealthy, 
as  things  go  there.  His  broad  acres  included  a  charming 
hillside  whence  a  lovely  view  reminded  one  in  its  filmy 
outline  of  a  bridal  veil ;  with  knolls  densely  wooded  and 
crystal  brooks  babbling  in  the  silence.  All  it  would  have 
required  to  make  this  charming  spot  fit  for  great  pil- 
grimage during  the  warm  season  was  a  hotel,  verandas, 
a  kitchen  adequate  to  feed  the  multitude  not  too  scantily, 
with  prices  yielding  a  fair  profit.  Li  chatting  with  this 
nice  old  boniface  of  mine  I  ventured  to  suggest  something 
like  this  to  him.  He  smiled,  rather  scornfully.  ''Yes," 
he  then  remarked,  dreamily,  "I've  had  plenty  of  offers — 
from  exploitation  companies,  from  summer  guests  of 
mine,  from  capitalists  abroad.  What  is  the  use?  I  am 
quite  content  here.  So  is  my  family.  It  would  only 
mean  a  lot  of  worry.  It  would  mean  that  we  should  no 
longer  be  our  own  masters;  that  all  these  strangers 
(Fremden)  would  turn  us  out  of  house  and  home.  And 
what  for?  I've  got  money  enough,  more  than  I  need. 
No,  no.  To  take  in  a  few  guests  during  July  and  August, 
that  is  well.  They  tell  us  what's  going  on  in  the  world. 
But  that  is  enough.  That  does  not  mean  that  we  have 
to  slave  for  other  people,  for  people  who  don't  care  a 
rap  for  me  or  mine. ' ' 

And  I  found  that  the  views  of  this  old  man  were  shared 
by  most  of  those  in  the  romantic  Alpine  lands  of  Austria 
with  whom  I  came  in  contact.    The  villagers  were  averse 


DESCRIPTIONS  ABOUT  DUAL  MONARCHY    5 

to  having  the  turmoil  of  the  town,  the  eager  quest  of 
money  and  gain  introduced  in  their  quiet,  sober  home- 
steads. They  far  prefer  their  old-fashioned  comfort  to 
the  bustle  of  piling  up  riches ;  riches  with  which,  after  all, 
most  of  them  would  not  know  what  to  do.  For  theirs  is 
indeed  the  simple  life.  Even  many  of  the  wealthier  ones 
are  content  with  sterz  (a  sort  of  mush,  to  which  a  bit  of 
bacon  has  been  added)  as  the  main  ingredient  of  the  prin- 
cipal meal.  They  look  aghast  at  city  strife  and  at  the 
race  for  money.  And  this  homely  philosophy,  no  doubt, 
has  something  to  do  with  the  quaint,  old-time  flavour  of 
Austria's  (and  also  Hungary's)  rural  life  and,  inci- 
dentally, with  the  lack  of  organised  effort  to  attract  the 
tourist  of  the  outer  world  to  their  mountain  sides  and 
the  crag-encircled  vales  of  their  homes.  Otherwise,  as  I 
intimated,  there  is  not  much  to  prevent  a  steadily  increas- 
ing stream  of  visitors  to  enjoy  themselves.  Rates  are 
low  enough.  Good,  even  excellent,  hotels  are  existing 
in  reasonable  numbers.  At  just  a  very  few  favoured 
spots,  owing  to  special  conditions,  prices  range  somewhat 
high.  That,  for  instance,  is  the  case  up  on  the  Sem- 
mering.  But  that  is  both  comprehensible  and  excusable. 
For  the  Semmering,  a  mountain  ridge  6000  feet  and  over 
high,  leading  from  Lower  Austria  into  Styria  on  the  main 
line  to  Trieste,  can  be  reached  by  rail  from  Vienna  within 
a  couple  of  hours.  And  not  only  is  the  scenery  up  there 
bewilderingly  grand  and  beautiful,  but  this  wonderful 
Semmering  provides,  too,  during  the  glare  and  heat  of 
the  dog  days,  midwinter  sports — glaciers,  skiing,  rodeln 
i.e.,  sleighing  and  sledding),  climbing,  skating.  So  there 
were  actually  a  few  Austrians  (and  Germans,  of  course) 
of  such  remarkable  enterprise  as  to  erect  some  lux- 
uriously appointed,  magnificently  located,  huge  interna- 
tional caravansaries,  where  everything  is  to  be  had  that 


6    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

one  can  find  at  St.  Moritz  or  elsewhere,  with  correspond- 
ing rates.  The  Vienna  people  now  call  it  ' '  Millionaire 's 
Mountain,"  and  pretend  that  the  charges  are  frightful. 
But  things  are  really  not  so  bad  as  that.  It  is  similar 
as  regards  hotels  and  restaurants  in  the  large  cities  of 
Austria  and  Hungary.  Indeed  none  of  them  even  re- 
motely approaches  in  expensiveness  our  own  American 
hotels  of  the  first  rank;  and  while  none  of  them,  either, 
can  boast  of  all  and  every  feature  of  comfort  and  con- 
venience that  distinguish  the  latter,  the  guest  will  notice 
with  pleasure  that,  on  the  other  hand,  they  show  attrac- 
tions peculiarly  their  owti.  But  it  is  not  my  purpose  to 
go  into  these  details. 

Relatively  few  persons  ouvside  of  Austria  have  ever 
heard  of  the  Wachau.  And  yet  it  means  a  trip  that  in 
some  essential  respects  excels  in  attractiveness  a  trip 
down  the  far-famed  Rhine,  from  Mayence  to  Cologne, 
say.  The  Wachau  is  a  district  along  the  upper  Danube 
River.  Comfortable  steamers  are  most  enjoyable  for  the 
ride  down.  It  is  best  to  go  from  Vienna  by  rail  a  short 
distance,  and  then  board  a  boat  and  stop  at  the  most 
interesting  points.  The  Danube  rushes  here  through 
a  narrow  bed,  with  steep  picturesque  hills  rising  on  both 
shores.  It  is  this  part  of  the  Danube  that  the  ancient 
Lap  of  the  Nibelung  describes  so  wonderfully,  with  old 
Pochlarn,  fief  of  old  Riidiger  from  Attila  the  Hun,  still 
existing  in  its  hollow;  w^ith  the  wealthy  Benedictine  Ab- 
bey of  Melk  frowning  down  from  its  rocky  promontory. 
Vineyards  everywhere,  narrow  defiles,  ruined  old  castles 
of  knight  and  lord  crowning  the  brow  or  summit  of  the 
hills;  a  wine  of  almost  southern  fire  is  growTi  on  these 
sunkissed  mountainsides.  You  stop ;  you  leave  the  boat ; 
you  put  up  at  one  of  the  quaint  little  towns.  Usually  they 
have  but  one  steep,  narrow  street;  but  there  are  flowers 


DESCRIPTIONS  ABOUT  DUAL  MONARCHY    7 

at  each  window,  orchards  and  blossoms  in  each  of  the 
little  spaces  behind  the  old-fashioned  houses  of  dazzling 
white  and  green.    And  here,  in  this  Wachau,  you  feel  you 
are  in  the  18th  century,  nay,  the  16th.     Time  seems  to 
have  stood  still.     Prices  ditto.    You  could  not  spend  a 
five  dollar  bill  a  day  if  you  taxed  resources  to  the  ut- 
most.   That  is  the  peculiar  feature  of  Austria-Hungary : 
that  it  is  a  country  abounding  in  varied  scenery  of  en- 
trancing beauty  everywhere  you  go.    There  are  immense 
contrasts,  it  is  true,  but  that  heightens  the  charm.    You 
feel  all  the  while  like  a  discoverer.    What  could  be,  for 
instance,  more  dissimilar  in  outline  and  in  the  subtle 
spirit  that  stamps  each  landscape  as  a  thing  apart,  than 
a  bit  of  scenery  in  the  Austrian  or  Tyrolese  Alps  and 
one  on  the  Puszta  or  the  Alf  old  in  Hungary !    The  purple 
porphyry  giants  of  southern  Tyrol,  rising  12,000  feet 
high,  naked,  bare,  steeped  in  the  glare  of  the  hot  sun,  with 
the  eternal  snows  capping  their  domes,  seaming  the  bold 
walls!    And  the  prairie  land  of  Hungary,  almost  level, 
with  azure  sky,  with  boundless  horizon,  with  green,  wav- 
ing corn  as  far  as  eye  can  scan,  flecked  cattle  with  enor- 
mous horns,  grazing;  the  czikos  (horseherd)  flying  along 
with  the  wind  in  his  wide,  snowy  garments,  and  the  stal- 
lions following,  neighing  and  with  thundering  hoof.    You 
make  the  acquaintance  of  the  czikos.    With  true  Magyar 
hospitality  he  invites  you  at  once  to  partake  of  his  plain 
meal :  a  gulyas,  a  real  one,  with  paprika  enough  in  it  to 
make  your  eyes  wink,  and  with  a  thimbleful  of  the  genuine 
slivovic  to  wash  it  down.    The  czikos  talks  to  you.    He 
discovers  you  are  from  America.    Instantly  his  manner 
changes.    He  becomes  confidential,  sympathetic;  he  has 
a  brother  in  Pennsylvania,  he  says.    Many  of  these  Hun- 
garians, spending  all  their  lives  on  this  flat  land,  have 
never  seen  anything  higher  than  a  church  steeple.    Dur- 


8    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

ing  this  war,  when  Magyar  regiments  for  the  first  time 
began  to  form  the  front  against  Italy,  they  saw  these 
Tyrolese  dolomite  giants  towering  to  the  skies — 9,000, 
10,000,  12,000  feet  high.  And  they  were  to  get  up  there 
and  to  hold  them  with  Magyar  valour,  they  were  told.  It 
was  more  than  they  could  grasp  at  first.  But  by  and  by 
they  discovered  that  up  there,  too,  there  was  air  they 
could  breathe — a  fact  which  at  first  they  had  doubted. 
"We  are  not  goats,"  they  Jiad  told  their  officers.  But 
they  learned  to  climb. 

However,  of  grand  scenery  none  excels  in  point  of 
variety  that  offered  by  the  Carpathian  range,  notably 
that  portion  known  as  the  High  Tatra.  It  is  a  region  still 
so  little  known  that  for  many  of  the  most  beautiful  bits 
of  scenery  there  is  not  even  a  name.  The  range  itself 
divides  Galicia  and  Western  Moravia  from  Hungary 
proper,  but  the  Tatra,  with  its  rugged  pine-clad  peaks  and 
chasms,  is  by  far  the  most  picturesque  portion  of  it. 
Although  there  are  mineral  springs  and  watering  places 
and  health  resorts  hidden  away  in  it,  many  districts  of 
the  Tatra  are  still  so  difficult  of  access  and  so  wild  that 
the  huge  Russian  brown  bear  finds  it  a  congenial  home. 
Bear  hunting  forms,  therefore,  a  chief  sport.  But  the 
whole  region  abounds,  besides,  in  game,  big  and  small, 
including  the  eagle,  vulture,  fox,  lynx,  wolf,  and  various 
species  valued  for  their  fur.  And  what  applies  to  the 
Tatra  portion  of  the  Carpathians  also  applies  to  Bosnia 
and  Hercegovina,  territories  held  by  the  Turks  till  1878, 
and  formally  annexed  by  Austria-Hungary  but  a  few 
years  since.  These  two  provinces,  which  administra- 
tively form  but  one  unit  at  present,  are  wild  and  rugged 
beyond  compare.  There,  too,  the  bear  is  at  home,  and 
for  the  hardy  sportsman  there  is  scarcely  a  better  field 
to  visit.     But  things  are  extremely  primitive  there  as 


DESCRIPTIONS  ABOUT  DUAL  MONARCHY    9 

yet,  and  even  such  an  institution  as  the  guide  does  not 
exist.  But  experienced  native  hunters  are  easy  to  find, 
and  a  bargain  is  struck  without  trouble.  The  chase  is 
practically  unrestricted  in  Bosnia  and  Hercegovina.  As 
there  is  no  native  nobility,  there  are  no  shooting  lodges, 
no  inns  in  this  wilderness;  ''roughing  it"  is  the  motto. 
But  the  sport  is  grand;  game  is  plentiful,  and  the  scenery 
is  awe-inspiring  in  its  savage  sublimity.  It  is  only  ex- 
celled by  that  of  the  Bukovina,  a  small  province  acquired 
under  Emperor  Joseph  II  and  adjoining  Russia,  Ru- 
mania, and  Galicia.  Bukovina  is  Slavic  and  means 
''beech  forest" ;  and,  indeed,  on  the  lower  slopes  the  beech 
abounds,  while  on  the  higher  ranges  the  fir  and  pine  and 
larch  predominate.  Small  as  Bukovina  is,  it  is  still  two- 
tliirds  nature  in  the  rough.  The  whole  country  bears 
in  its  natural  features  a  close  resemblance  to  Switzer- 
land, although  its  mountains  are  not  so  majestic.  Yet 
to  compensate  for  that  the  views  are  even  finer  and  the 
vegetation  is  varied  and  abundant.  Much  of  it  is  virgin 
forest.  The  rural  population  is  largely  Rumanian,  on 
a  very  low  plane  of  civilisation,  but  with  a  set  of  ancient 
customs,  with  curious  garb  and  manners,  with  folk  lore, 
dances  come  down  from  hoary  days,  and  with  historical 
traditions  that  are  all  of  intense  interest  to  the  traveller. 
And  game  there  is  of  every  kind  in  plenty,  there  being 
no  game  preserves  and  no  game  laws  in  force.  Bukovina 
has  played  a  very  peculiar  part  during  the  war.  For  a 
year  or  more  it  was  defended  by  the  commander  of  the 
Bukovina  border  police.  Col.  Fischer,  in  much  the  same 
way  the  Tyrol  was  in  1809  against  Napoleon  I,  a  thing 
made  feasible  by  the  rugged  character  of  the  country. 
"With  2000  of  his  mountaineers  Col.  Fischer  held  a  Rus- 
sian army  of  20,000  at  bay.  Strange  tales  of  this  border 
warfare  have  leaked  out  now  and  then,  tales  reminding 


10     AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

one  rather  of  Fenimore  Cooper  and  his  Indian  stories. 
On  one  particular  occasion  Col.  Fischer  spread  rumours 
of  great  accessions  to  his  ranks,  and  he  held  the  Russian 
commander  to  one  spot,  largely  by  dummy  batteries  con- 
stnicted  out  of  felled  tree  trunks,  while  his  men  executed 
an  important  flank  movement  in  quite  another  quarter. 

Then  Transylvania ;  another  borderland,  with  Hungary 
proper  on  the  west  and  Rumania  on  the  south.  It  is  a 
country  remarkable  in  every  way.  In  point  of  popula- 
tion, the  Rumanian  element  predominates,  folk  of  curi- 
ously pristine  habits  and  mien,  with  whom  mamaliga,  a 
stiff  maize  mush  much  like  the  polenta  of  Lombardy,  is 
practically  the  sole  article  of  diet,  and  whose  legends  and 
traditions,  whose  fireside  songs  of  dreamy  melancholy, 
whose  wooing  and  burying,  whose  village  dances  of  an- 
tique style,  whose  loves  and  hates  are  all  alike  impress- 
ing the  observer  as  relics  of  a  remote  past.  Next  to  them 
in  numerical  importance  is  the  Magyar  element — the 
larger  contingent  being  the  so-called  Szeklers  (meaning 
Hillmen) :  that  is,  descendants  of  the  aboriginal  conquer- 
ing hordes  who  have  been  modified  but  little  by  the  march 
of  thirteen  centuries,  much  less,  indeed,  than  their  broth- 
ers in  Hungary  itself.  The  distinctive  characteristics  of 
the  Magyar,  his  fiery  impetuosity,  his  boundless  hospi- 
tality, his  lavish  display,  his  spendthrift  ways,  his  eager 
ambition  and  trend  to  adventure  and  battle  have  here 
survived  most  purely.  Lastly  there  are  the  Saxons  of 
Transylvania,  first  called  from  their  homes  by  Weser 
and  Rhine  some  seven  centuries  ago,  following  the  invita- 
tion of  King  Andrew  of  Hungary.  These  Saxons  have 
preserved  their  Teuton  tj'pe  completely.  In  faith  they 
are  Lutherans;  the  Szeklers  are  Catholics  mostly;  the 
Rumanians  Greek-Orthodox;  and  in  tongue,  in  customs 
and  ideals  they  closely  assimilate  with  the  Germans  of  the 


DESCRIPTIONS  ABOUT  DUAL  MONARCHY    11 

Empire,  and  the  well-to-do  among  them  invariably  study 
at  Berlin  University  and  support  German  theatres,  Ger- 
man newspapers  and  German  literature.  With  all  that, 
however,  politically  they  are  loyal  Hungarians.  And  in 
this  Transylvania  there  is  a  mountain  range  which  bears 
the  name  of  Alps ;  rightly  so,  for  in  scenery  and  magnifi- 
cent grandeur  these  mountains  vie  with  those  of  Switzer- 
land. 

A  quiet,  sombre  beauty  of  its  own,  too,  is  possessed 
by  that  region  described  as  the  Bohemian  Forest,  a  region 
with  which  many  foreigners  who  have  sought  health  in 
Carlsbad,  Marienbad,  Teplitz  or  Franzensbad  are  more 
or  less  familiar;  whereas  the  cave  wonders  of  Carniola 
( Adlersberg  and  vicinity)  and  Styria  and  the  surpassing 
beauty  of  the  rockbound  Dalmatian  coast  are  known  to 
few  in  comparison.  Right  in  the  midst  of  the  war  a 
hitherto  unknown  group  of  mammoth  caves  in  Styria  was 
discovered  and  explored  under  the  direction  of  the  pro- 
vincial government.  I  have  not  seen  them,  but  was  told 
that  they  surpassed  anything  laid  bare  in  the  world  in 
point  of  subterranean  extent  (some  140  square  miles  so 
far  examined,  with  some  incidental  loss  of  life — now  an 
electric  plant  has  been  installed)  and  in  fairyland  splen- 
dours. Rivers  of  great  size  and  depth  have  been  found, 
pouring  their  Acheronian  waters  into  chasms  hundreds 
of  feet  below  and  there  swallowed  up  by  unseen  pools. 
Mighty  palaces  of  stalactite,  snowy  and  dazzling,  are 
reared  below  there,  a  mile  or  more  underneath  the  Dach- 
stein  peak,  ornamented  with  pillars  and  friezes  of  mar- 
vellous outline.  I  think  these  wondrous  places  are  now 
accessible,  in  some  of  their  parts  at  least. 

And  what  heightens  the  charm  of  a  yacht  cruise  along 
the  indented  and  varied  coast  of  Dalmatia  and  its  islands, 
is  the  fact  that  there  are  ancient  harbour  towns  there, 


12    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

Ragusa,  Zara,  Cattaro,  Gravosa,  that  once  attained  to  im- 
portance and  splendour  under  the  Lion  of  St.  Mark; 
islands  like  Lessina,  Lissa  and  Curzola,  which  under  Ve- 
netian rule  of  centuries  ago  were  not  only  beauty  spots 
set  in  the  amethyst  of  the  Adriatic,  which  they  are  still, 
but  more  prosperous  and  with  a  thriving  trade.  These 
towns  to-day  are  somewhat  listless;  but  the  wonders  of 
their  graceful  architecture  have  survived.  And  there  is 
Salona,  a  bit  inland,  with  its  splendid  ruins  of  the  days 
of  Diocletian,  the  Roman  emperor  who  was  the  last  fierce 
persecutor  of  the  early  Christians,  himself  a  native  of 
Dalmatia.  All  these  towns,  in  fact,  leave  a  haunting 
memory  behind.  Their  cypress  groves  against  the  azure 
sky  stand  out  in  one's  recollections. 

Then,  as  for  sport,  where  else  in  the  world  do  you  find 
every  variety  of  itf  Not  only  do  deer  and  stag  abound 
everywhere,  but  the  shy  chamois  as  well,  the  wild-boar 
and  the  fiercer  denizens  of  the  forest.  And  as  for  game 
birds,  grouse  and  cajDercailzie  in  the  Alpine  moors  and 
heaths  and  woods,  and  water  fowl  of  every  species,  even 
some  found  nowhere  else,  are  met  with  along  the  low- 
lands of  the  Danube  and  Theiss,  the  Save  and  Drave, 
down  to  the  Narenta  swamps  in  Hercegovina.  In  the 
shooting  boxes  of  the  Austrian  and  Hungarian  nobility 
one  finds  unique  collections  of  trophies  of  the  chase. 

Contrasts,  contrasts  everywhere.  Races  or  fragments 
of  races  dwelling  in  their  aboriginal  homes  or  overlap- 
ping: A  strange  medley  of  Slav  and  Teuton,  of  Turani- 
ans in  Hungary  and  Latins  in  the  South  and  Southeast. 
Polyglot  and  of  many  faiths,  the  only  link  holding  them 
together  more  or  less  willingly  is  the  common  dynasty, 
the  Habsburgs,  themselves  an  amalgam,  for  their  blood, 
too,  in  the  course  of  centuries  has  mingled  with  Slav  and 
Latin,  with  Gaul  and  Fleming  and  Burgnindian,  as  a 


DESCRIPTIONS  ABOUT  DUAL  MONAECHY    13 

glance  at  the  records  of  the  house,  a  definition  of  their 
heraldic  escutcheon,  at  once  betrays.  And  yet  there  are, 
to  any  one  going  at  the  business  without  preconceived  no- 
tions, certain  traits  that  seem  to  belong  jointly  to  the  peo- 
ples of  Austria-Hungary  alike.  To  this  point  I  will  refer 
elsewhere.  Here  I  wish  merely  to  point  out  that  a  cer- 
tain easy  good-nature,  a  certain  leisureliness,  a  certain 
trend  to  hospitality,  a  certain  flabby  softness  and  lack 
of  rugged  energy,  an  unpretentious  kindness,  a  certain 
freshness  of  spirit  and  naiveness  appear  to  mark  them 
all,  no  matter  what  their  race  or  creed.  This  has  struck 
me  many  times  and  in  many  places,  under  the  most  di- 
verse circumstances,  and  I  had  observed  it  first  in  this 
country  when  consorting  with  Austrians  and  Hungarians 
of  all  kinds.  And  I  don't  think  I  can  be  mistaken  in 
this  perception. 

Next  to  that,  though,  with  some  notable  exceptions,  to 
which  I  shall  refer  later,  there  are  a  prevailing  lack  of 
energy  (the  concomitant  nearly  always  of  pronouncedly 
easy  disposition)  and  strong  class  distinction  and  caste 
feeling  to  be  noted  among  the  population  of  Austria- 
Hungary.  It  does  not  everywhere  take  the  same  form, 
but  it  exists  and  makes  itself  felt.  No  doubt  the  latter 
peculiarity  is  intimately  connected  with  the  history  of  the 
Dual  Monarchy,  with  the  political  backwardness  of  the 
people,  with  their  lower  standard  of  life  when  compared 
with  nations  further  west,  and  with  the  scantier  influx 
of  modem  ideas  and  of  the  currents  of  thought  set  first 
adrift  by  the  French  Revolution.  It  must  be  recalled  that 
Austria  never  had  such  a  social  or  political  upheaval  as 
either  France  or  England,  her  lack  of  internal  coherence 
being  probably  largely  responsible  for  that.  Nor  had 
Hungary  and  her  dependencies  such  an  earthquake, 
either.    Her  one  popular  rising,  that  of  1848-49,  was  pri- 


14    AUSTRIA-HUNG AEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

marily  intended  to  throw  off  the  Austrian  yoke,  and  only 
incidentally  and  in  the  second  place  were  the  aims  favour- 
able to  an  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  her  masses,  or 
to  social  emancipation.  To  a  certain  extent  a  parallel 
with  Germany  wdll  suggest  itself  here,  although  neither 
political  nor  social  conditions  are  more  than  remotely 
analogous. 

But  in  any  event  this  present  war,  no  matter  what  its 
ultimate  outcome,  will  prove  a  potent  remedy  in  levelling 
these  crass  distinctions  of  position  and  caste.  That  much 
may  be  even  now  stated  with  confidence.  To  the  careful 
eye  of  the  impartial  onlooker  in  Vienna  there  came  cor- 
roborations of  this  hypothesis  all  through  the  varied  for- 
tunes of  the  big  war.  Fighting  in  the  mass,  shoulder  to 
shoulder  in  the  trenches,  rich  and  poor,  highborn  and 
lowborn  alike,  does  breed  a  spirit  of  democracy.  How 
far  it  has  penetrated  and  how  ineradicable  it  will  prove 
in  the  days  of  final  peace,  I  noted  with  peculiar  interest. 
And  behind  the  front,  among  the  civilian  population,  the 
same  fact  could  be  remarked.  To  be  fellows  in  suffering, 
to  share  the  pangs  of  hunger,  of  penury,  of  all  the  ills  of 
which  war  is  the  father, — this  alone  is  apt  to  weld  diver- 
gent classes  into  a  more  homogeneous  whole.  But  aside 
from  that,  there  are  other  agencies  at  work  throughout 
this  long  and  bloody  w^ar  tending  to  the  same  goal.  No 
nation,  no  matter  what  its  former  idiosjmcrasies,  can  pass 
through  such  a  fiery  furnace  as  has  the  people  of  Austria- 
Hungary  ever  since  1914 — and  on  the  whole,  of  the  large 
belligerents,  none  has  paid  such  heavy  toll  in  blood  and 
treasure,  in  proportion  to  its  population  and  means — 
without  being  powerfully  altered. 

At  any  rate  the  serflike  subservience  of  the  lower 
classes  in  Austria-Hungary,  which  might  have  been 
noticed  so  generally  up  to  1914,  has  diminished  to-day  to 


DESCEIPTIONS  ABOUT  DUAL  MONAECHY    15 

a  considerable  extent.  Of  that  I  saw  many  traces.  Thus, 
the  attitude  of  the  soldiers  towards  their  officers  has 
changed.  It  is  now  a  more  purely  human  one.  So  has 
that  of  the  serving  class  towards  their  employers,  their 
* '  masters. ' '  Even  the  highly  characteristic  little  phrases, 
indicating  humility,  absolute  obedience,  etc.;  such  as  ''I 
kiss  your  hand,  gracious  lady,"  ''my  obedient  servitude 
to  you,  gracious  master,"  have  become  rarer  and  rarer. 
And  these  are  but  surface  indications.  It  will  be  a  good 
thing  for  Austria  and  Hungary  when  Bobby  Burns '  "  A 
man's  a  man  for  a'  that"  will  become  truth  there,  and 
when  one  will  no  longer  hear  plaints  all  over  that  the 
only  thing  that  counts  is  ''birth,"  connections,  favourit- 
ism, nepotism,  "protection,"  as  the  phrase  there  goes.  It 
will  make  for  the  uplift  of  the  whole  polyglot  mixture  and 
eliminate  one  of  the  features  most  repulsive  to  an  Amer- 
ican dwelling  in  the  Dual  Monarchy. 

There  is  so  much  good  in  the  character  of  the  people 
there,  such  treasures  of  affection,  of  compassion,  of  broad 
charity,  of  indulgence  for  the  foibles  of  one's  neighbour, 
such  a  bright  joyousness  and  easy  content,  so  much  that 
is  best  in  human  nature,  in  fact,  that  one  longs  to  see 
this  charming  people  put  on  the  highroad  to  good  fortune 
once  more. 

Eight  here  let  me  recall  a  conversation  I  had  in  Sep- 
tember, 1916,  with  the  ex-Premier  of  Austria,  Dr.  Ernest 
von  Koerber.  In  the  course  of  it  he  expressed  his  high 
hope  that  after  the  war  the  American  people  would  give 
aid  and  encouragement  to  the  Dual  Monarchy  on  the 
thorny  path  leading  up  to  a  re-establishment  of  prosper- 
ity. In  particular  he  spoke  of  the  yet  undeveloped  nat- 
ural resources  of  Austria  and  of  the  need  of  more  cap- 
ital to  develop  them  to  the  full.  And  I  can  only  coincide 
in  what  this  veteran  statesman  (one  of  the  noblest  figures 


16    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

in  Austrian  public  life)  said.  Austria  has  become  a  pre- 
dominantly industrial  country.  Granted;  but  she  suf- 
fers nevertheless  from  an  insufficiency  of  liquid  capital, 
and  this  condition,  undeniable  as  it  was  before  the  war, 
will  be  greatly  intensified  after  the  restoration  of  peace. 
There  lives  in  the  Austrian  people,  and  perhaps  even  in 
a  still  higher  degree  in  the  people  of  Hungary,  an  inex- 
haustible fund  of  sympathy,  admiration,  confidence  and 
trust  in  the  American  people.  Even  the  war  has  not  been 
able  to  obliterate,  or  even  diminish  it.  And  it  is  shared 
by  high  and  low  alike.  As  for  the  pressing  need  of  de- 
veloping her  great  natural  resources,  fallow  to  this  hour 
to  a  great  extent,  there  can  be  no  question.  While,  just 
to  mention  one  instance,  it  is  true  that  in  Bohemia  (by 
all  odds  the  richest,  most  progressive  and  best  developed 
part  of  Austria)  the  resources  of  nature  have  been  taken 
care  of,  so  to  speak,  yet  this  is  by  no  means  the  case  in 
other  parts  of  the  monarchy.  Bohemia,  indeed,  is  the 
only  exception.  All  the  other  regions  are  woefully  be- 
hind. Even  Upper  Austria,  one  of  the  original ' '  crown- 
lands"  of  the  empire,  requires  capital  and  brains  to  ex- 
ploit it.  The  mines  of  the  empire  are  not  even  located 
for  the  larger  share.  Geologically  it  is  quite  certain  that 
there  must  be  many  more  deposits  of  ore — iron,  lead, 
mercury,  zinc,  silver,  coal,  pitchblende,  etc.;  there  must 
also,  geologically  considered,  be  naphtha  and  petroleum 
in  the  Hungarian  lowlands;  the  mountainous  soil  of 
Transylvania  must  be  replete  with  valuable  minerals,  be- 
sides its  present  copper,  coal,  silver  and  gold  mines,  many 
of  them  worked  to  apparent  exhaustion.  Above  all,  the 
immense  waterpower  of  the  totally  neglected  Alpine  lands 
of  Carniola  and  Carinthia  ought  to  prove  sources  of 
future  wealth  and  industrial  production.  I  recall  the  late 
incumbent  of  the  United  States  in  Vienna,  Ambassador 


DESCRIPTIONS  ABOUT  DUAL  MONARCHY    17 

Frederic  C.  Penfield,  telling  me  after  an  extensive  trip 
through  that  district :  ''What  a  pity !  Millions  and  mil- 
lions going  to  waste  there  in  those  magnificent  waterfalls 
and  rapid  mountain  streams.  They  might  be  harnessed, 
like  our  own  Niagara,  to  electricity."  A  great  field,  in- 
deed, for  our  American  expert  miners  and  engineers. 

And  as  it  is  in  those  respects,  it  is  also  in  others  in 
Austria-Hungary.  I  do  not  wish  to  convey  to  the  reader 
the  impression  that  Austria-Hungary  in  all  its  parts  and 
in  all  the  sections  of  its  population  is  uncultivated,  un- 
couth or  behind  the  times.  That  would  be  a  fatal  error. 
Nothing  could  be  farther  from  the  truth.  There  are, 
without  the  slightest  doubt,  many  men  of  high  standing 
in  every  sphere  of  human  activity,  whether  it  be  in 
science,  in  art,  in  modern  technics,  in  industry  or  even 
in  agriculture,  commerce  and  finance.  Of  that,  indeed, 
the  world  is  quite  aware.  But  there  are  not  nearly 
enough  of  such  men  for  the  needs  of  the  country  as  a 
whole.  And  they  are  labouring  under  one  great  disad- 
vantage :  namely,  the  vast  difference  in  the  state  of  cul- 
ture that  prevails  in  the  various  provinces  of  the  Dual 
Monarchy.  Official  figures  show  that  strikingly.  Thus, 
in  1913  were  published  the  census  statistics  for  1910 
bearing  on  education  for  the  whole  country.  They  re- 
vealed, among  other  things,  the  fact  that  illiteracy  is  still 
frightfully  common  there.  Not,  of  course,  in  every  prov- 
ince, but  in  the  vast  majority  of  these.  The  blackest 
picture  in  the  list  was  presented  by  Dalmatia,  where,  in 
the  inland  portion,  the  illiteracy  {i.e.,  the  inability  to 
read  or  write)  percentage  for  all  persons  of  over  six 
years  of  age  was  78.  Close  behind  was  Galicia  (a  prov- 
ince of  about  eight  million  of  population,  whereas  Dal- 
matia's  is  only  about  700,000)  with  63  for  the  province  as 
a  whole.     Things  are  not  much  better  in  other  Slavic 


18    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

provinces,  such  as  Carniola,  Istria,  Croatia  and  Slavonia, 
and  even  in  the  predominatingly  Slav  districts  of  Carin- 
thia,  Styria,  the  Slovak  sections  of  Hungary.  The  Ru- 
manians, too,  are  far  behind  in  schooling  and  general  in- 
telligence. Their  agricultural  methods  smack  strongly 
of  the  dark  Middle  Ages,  and  it  is  a  question  whether  the 
potent  grip  that  the  Rumanian  orthodox  priesthood  has 
on  these  simple  and  densely  ignorant  peasant  folk  be  an 
unalloyed  blessing. 

It  is  vastly  different,  of  course,  with  other  sections  of 
the  Dual  Monarchy.  Thus,  Bohemia  as  a  whole  looms 
up  again  in  the  van  of  progress.  The  keen  rivalry  there 
between  the  Czech  and  the  Teuton  elements  has  had  at 
least  the  one  grateful  result  of  producing,  among  all 
classes  of  population,  a  very  high  standard  of  popular 
education.  School  attendance  (of  course  it  is  compulsory) 
is  almost  a  full  hundred  per  cent.;  indeed  it  is  slightly 
higher  than  in  the  purely  German  parts  of  Austria,  such 
as  Lower  and  Upper  Austria,  Styria,  the  Tyrol,  and  even 
exceeds  that  of  the  Saxons  of  Transylvania,  though  there 
and  in  the  other  sections  mentioned  the  general  diffu- 
sion of  school  knowledge  and  the  means  of  acquiring  a 
higher  education  are  very  good  indeed.  Nor  can  it  be 
said  that  schools,  colleges,  technical  institutions  and  uni- 
versities are  on  a  low  plane  in  the  Dual  Monarchy.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  they  are  based  on  the  same  rigorous 
system  prevailing  in  Germany,  and  in  most  respects  a  de- 
gree obtained  at  the  Universities  of  Vienna,  of  Graz,  of 
Prague,  of  Czernowitz,  Lemberg  or  Cracow  means  as 
much  as  one  conferred  by  Berlin,  Heidelberg,  Munich  or 
Leipzig.  It  may  even  be  truthfully  averred  that  in  cer- 
tain domains  of  science  some  of  the  Austrian  seats  of 
learning  lead  the  world.  Such,  for  example,  is  the  case 
with  surgery  in  Vienna ;  a  fact  made  patent  by  the  great 


DESCRIPTIONS  ABOUT  DUAL  MONARCHY    19 

number  of  post-graduates  perfecting  themselves  in  the 
aula  and  in  the  clinics  and  sanitariums  of  Vienna, — post- 
graduates hailing  from  every  part  of  the  world,  not  only 
from  the  United  States,  but  also  from  Russia,  the  Balkan 
states,  South  and  Central  America,  from  England  and 
Italy  even.  That  is  a  fact  which  speaks  for  itself.  In- 
deed the  influx  of  such  young  practitioners  from  the  coun- 
tries named  shortly  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war  was 
so  great  in  number  as  to  seriously  interfere  with  the  con- 
venience of  the  native  students  and  to  lead  to  vigorous  re- 
monstrances by  the  latter.  Of  course,  the  war  has 
changed  all  that.  It  is  now  the  other  way.  In  the  second 
year  of  the  war  the  attendance  at  the  Vienna  University 
had  dropped  from  10,800  to  something  below  5,000.  But 
even  under  those  circumstances  I  have  it  on  the  assur- 
ance of  American  doctors  of  the  Red  Cross  that  nowhere 
else  were  they  able  to  profit  so  much  from  bold,  original 
and  successful  methods  of  surgery  as  from  those  in 
Vienna.  I  shall  recur  to  this  feature  of  the  case  else- 
where in  this  book.  In  technics,  too,  Austria  stands 
theoretically  very  high,  and  many  important  inventions 
had  their  origin  there.  But  it  is  a  curious  corrobora- 
tion of  what  was  said  on  that  head  before,  that  many  of 
the  best  trained  Austrian  engineers  had  to  go  to  South 
America  or  the  United  States  to  find  remunerative  fields, 
their  opportunities  at  home,  with  lack  of  capital  and  en- 
terprise restricting  them,  being  insufficient  to  hold  them. 
Hungary  proper  also  is  by  no  means  behind  in  these  mat- 
ters. The  University  of  Budapest  is  noted  for  its  achieve- 
ments in  various  walks  of  science;  and  as  to  the  school 
system,  it  is  good,  and  the  attendance,  considering  that 
the  country  is  agricultural  and  distance  often  great,  is 
surprisingly  high. 
As  to  the  cause  of  illiteracy  predominating  in  most  of 


20    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

the  Slavic  and  Rumanian  sections,  it  must  not  all  be  sad- 
dled on  the  central  governments.  In  fact,  the  central 
governments  have  very  little  to  do  with  it,  since  all  the 
Slavic  lands  enjoy  a  large  measure  of  autonomy,  and  the 
question  of  schooling  is  one  over  which  the  provincial 
chambers  and  diets  have  full  control.  But  the  Slavic 
populations  (always  excepting  that  of  Bohemia)  being, 
generally  speaking,  in  a  retarded  state  of  development, 
both  material  and  mental,  the  explanation  lies  rather 
there  than  elsewhere.  Being  economically  inferior,  too, 
the  taxes  imposed  and  the  revenues  drawn  from  provin- 
cial sources  are  often  totally  inadequate.  Dalmatia,  for 
instance,  although  styled  a  ''kingdom"  in  official  par- 
lance, has  all  told  scarcely  the  income  of  a  medium-sized 
city  in  this  country. 

It  may  be  imagined  under  all  these  given  circumstances 
that  the  woman  question,  so-called,  which  in  more  ad- 
vanced countries  has  been  in  a  state  of  seething  and 
feverish  agitation,  in  Austria-Hungary  has  only  just  set 
in.  But  within  the  short  period  that  the  whole  problem 
has  been  ventilated  at  all,  tremendous  progress  has  been 
made.  Nor  is  this  as  surprising  as  at  first  blush  it  would 
appear.  If  one  may  generalise  at  all  in  the  case  of  a  popu- 
lation so  heterogeneous  and  with  conditions  so  widely 
differing,  the  woman  of  Austria-Hungary  is  bright,  cheer- 
ful, rather  more  active  and  ambitious  than  the  man,  men- 
tally alert  and  possessing  a  strong  influence  over  the 
other  sex.  Nowhere,  it  may  be  said,  does  her  type  in  the 
Dual  Monarchy  approximate  that  of  the  Hausfrau  in  Ger- 
many proper.  She  is  somewhat  coquettish,  of  consider- 
able personal  charm,  endowed  with  a  natural  taste  for 
art  and  the  beautiful  and  graceful  in  life,  knows  how  to 
dress  and  how  to  make  the  most  of  herself  in  every  way ; 
and  while  on  the  whole  a  good  wife  and  mother,  as  she 


DESCRIPTIONS  ABOUT  DUAL  MONARCHY    21 

certainly  is  an  indulgent  one,  she  is  perhaps  too  attrac- 
tive (and  feels  herself  to  be  so)  to  hide  all  those  attrac- 
tions willingly  within  the  folds  of  a  strict  and  straight- 
laced  matrimony.  She  is  certainly  far  more  conscious  of 
her  feminine  charms  than  her  sister  in  Germany.  She  is 
more  sensual  as  well,  naively  so.  Love,  sexual  affection, 
means  much  more  to  her  than  it  does  in  other  intellectu- 
ally advanced  countries,  and  her  ideals  in  life  are  not 
circumscribed  as  much  as  elsewhere  in  this  workaday 
world.  And  let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that,  with  this  at- 
tempt to  outline  her  in  her  chief  features,  I  have  not  only 
the  woman  of  Vienna  in  my  eye,  but  her  less  conspicu- 
ous sisters  in  the  provinces  and  in  Hungary  as  well.  If 
anything,  for  example,  the  lady  of  Prague  or  of  Buda- 
pest is  more  elegant,  more  ''alive,"  so  to  speak,  than  her 
Vienna  sister,  though  the  latter 's  reputation  be  of  earlier 
date  and  wider  reach.  Be  that,  however,  as  it  may,  certain 
it  is  that  during  the  past  ten  years  woman  in  Austria- 
Hungary  has  been  travelling  with  great  rapidity  and 
notable  success  on  the  road  that  leads  to  a  more  equable 
apportioning  of  the  rights  and  duties  as  well  as  the  op- 
portunities of  the  sexes.  And  the  war,  as  elsewhere,  has 
accelerated  the  pace  greatly.  With  millions  of  the  men 
in  the  active  period  of  life  at  the  front  or  otherwise 
monopolised  by  war,  it  was  inevitable  that  women  old  and 
young  would  have  to  fill  places  thus  become  vacant  as 
well  as  they  could.  On  the  whole,  too,  they  have  acquitted 
themselves  of  their  novel  tasks  in  an  admirable  way. 
Much  of  this,  it  is  true,  will  be  but  temporary ;  but  enough 
remains  that  may  be  termed  permanent  gain.  Women 
and  girls  all  through  the  Dual  Monarchy  are  to-day  found 
in  positions  of  trust  and  responsibility;  as  lawyers,  as 
physicians,  teachers,  having  charge  of  the  management 
of  large  affairs,  of  big  estates,  of  important  business 


22     AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

concerns.  Millions  of  them  earn  the  bread  of  indepen- 
dence as  clerks,  saleswomen,  as  government  employes,  as 
storekeepers,  as  butchers,  bakers  and  candlestick  makers, 
as  chauffeurs,  as  drivers,  as  blacksmiths  even,  as  street 
labourers  and  pavers,  as  gardeners  and  rustic  labourers, 
as  masons  and  bricklayers — in  fact,  as  nearly  everything 
to  which,  but  a  few  years  ago,  none  but  males  would  have 
been  called.  The  process  was  a  gradual  one ;  but  to-day 
it  is  just  what  I  have  described,  and  there  is  little  doubt 
but  what,  even  after  the  men  return  from  the  war,  women 
w^ill  have  proved  themselves  so  efficient  and  serviceable 
that  a  very  large  proportion  of  them,  at  any  rate,  will  re- 
main in  their  present  positions.  Inquiring  here  and 
there,  and  scanning  the  papers  attentively,  I  observed 
very  little  dissatisfaction  with  the  work  women  have  had 
to  take  upon  themselves  under  the  stress  of  circum- 
stances. The  above  is,  of  course,  but  a  sketchy  treatment 
of  a  topic  which  it  would  alone  require  a  whole  volume  to 
handle  as  its  importance  deserves,  but  lack  of  space  for- 
bids going  into  the  matter  more  in  detail. 

It  must  be  so  also  with  another  couple  of  subjects  that 
can,  at  any  rate,  not  be  entirely  overlooked.  One  of  those 
is  marriage,  and,  growing  out  of  that,  divorce  and  the 
problem  of  illegitimate  offspring.  I  tread  here,  of  that  I 
am  fully  aware,  on  delicate  ground ;  nor  is  this  the  place 
to  discuss  the  various  phases  quite  frankly.  Suffice  it  to 
say  that  in  Austria,  more  than  in  Hungary  (where  liberal 
laws  as  to  marriage  and  divorce  obtain),  the  State  in  a 
certain  sense  discourages  both  marriage  and  divorce. 
Before  marriage  becomes  possible  the  intended  husband 
must  demonstrate  his  ability  to  maintain  a  wife.  This  is 
further  complicated  by  various  other  demands  and  re- 
strictions, some  of  them  enforced  by  the  civil,  others  by 
the  ecclesiastical  authorities.  The  Catholic  Church  in  Aus- 


DESCRIPTIONS  ABOUT  DUAL  MONARCHY    23 

tria  recognises  only  one  sufficient  ground  for  the  com- 
plete severance  of  the  marital  tie  and  for  the  right  to  re- 
marry, and  that  is  the  death  of  one  or  the  other  of  the 
contracting  parties.  A  complete  annulment  of  the  mar- 
riage relation  being  impossible  under  Catholic  teachings, 
strictly  enforced,  the  natural  consequence  is  that  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  annul  the  relation  at  least  practically. 
For  even  a  change  of  religion  would  not  entitle  the  par- 
ties, under  the  law  (at  least  in  the  vast  majority  of  cases) , 
to  enter  into  a  second  union.  Couples  living  apart  from 
each  other,  however,  enjoy  a  latitude  in  their  social  rela- 
tions which  to  the  outsider  seems  amazing.  Nor  does  the 
State  in  the  least  interfere.  Now,  with  the  middle  and 
well-to-do  or  the  aristocratic  classes  such  a  state  of  things 
does  not  entail  by  any  means  the  same  evil  consequences 
it  does  with  the  proletariat.  In  the  former  case  at  least 
outward  appearances  of  decency  are  more  or  less  pre- 
served, and  separation  may  not  mean  a  plunge  into 
viciousness  or  worse.  It  is  far  otherwise  with  the  lower 
classes  in  city  or  country.  It  needs  no  imagination  to  per- 
ceive that.  And  thus  it  is  that  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  ill-matched  couples  in  Austria  of  necessity,  and  as  a 
correlative,  produce  hundreds  of  thousands  of  otfspring 
bom  out  of  wedlock.  True,  divorce  itself,  while  rendered 
difficult  and  expensive  by  the  State,  may  be  decreed  by 
the  courts.  But  that  is  not  a  redress  of  the  wrongs  in- 
flicted on  one  part  or  the  other.  For  it  is  only  a  separa- 
tion from  bed  and  board.  The  stamp  of  illegitimacy  is 
thus  imprinted  for  life  on  thousands  of  guiltless  children 
born  every  year.  However,  it  is  an  unwritten  law  that 
where  such  deplorable  conditions  are  the  outcome  of  a 
state  of  things  inherently  unwise  and,  perhaps,  morally 
wrong  as  well,  the  community  as  a  whole  views  it  with 
considerable  leniency  and  does  not  visit,  save  in  excep- 


24    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

tional  cases,  the  sins  of  the  parents  on  the  unoffending 
heads  of  their  offspring.  So  it  is,  too,  in  Austria.  And 
so  far  indeed  has  this  inductive  reasoning  proceeded  in 
Austria  and  (in  a  less  urgent  degree)  in  Hungary,  that 
the  State  itself  has  done  much  to  remove  the  stigma  oth- 
erwise attaching  to  lawless  pairings  and  their  illegitimate 
progeny.  This  was  strikingly  illustrated  right  at  the  out- 
break of  the  war. 

Of  all  parts  of  Austria  the  evil  above  referred  to  was 
and  is  worst  in  Vienna.  This  has  become  proverbial  in 
the  country.  For  how  much  of  this  the  peculiarly  gay 
and  (in  love  matters)  unrestrained  character  of  the  Vi- 
enna woman  (otherwise  so  charming  and,  in  a  sense,  re- 
fined and  unselfish)  is  responsible,  I  know  not;  I  am  in- 
clined to  think  it  is  more  owing  to  the  general  conditions 
of  life  at  the  Austrian  capital  and  to  the  inevitable  dan- 
gers and  temptations  of  a  huge  city.  At  any  rate,  statis- 
tics prove  that  of  the  annual  number  of  births  in  Vienna 
nearly  thirty  per  cent,  are  illegitimate.  This  is  about 
twice  as  high  as  for  the  whole  of  the  Dual  Monarchy,  and 
fifty  per  cent,  higher  than  for  Austria  alone.  When, 
therefore,  the  war  broke  out  and  the  question  arose  how 
to  provide  for  the  wives  and  children  of  the  soldiers  be- 
longing to  the  labouring  classes,  etc.  (with  whom,  it  would 
almost  seem,  illegitimate  birth  is  rather  the  rule  than  the 
exception),  in  the  absence  of  their  bread-winners,  the 
situation  was  greatly  complicated  by  the  enormous  num- 
ber of  these  ''unwedded  wives"  and,  often  motherless  or 
deserted,  little  ones.  The  matter  was  thoroughly  dis- 
cussed, and  the  final  result  arrived  at  that  equal  provision 
and  to  the  same  amount  in  monthly  financial  aid,  would 
have  to  be  made  for  the  benefit  of  those  unfortunates  be- 
longing to  this  second  category.  And  so  it  was  arranged. 
A  problem  which,  it  may  well  be  believed,  had  stirred  to 


DESCRIPTIONS  ABOUT  DUAL  MONARCHY    25 

their  depths  the  hearts  of  those  quarters  of  Vienna  where 
the  turbulent  socialist  and  labouring  element  dwells,  was 
thus  solved  according  to  the  dictates  of  humanity  and 
common  sense.  And  thus  it  has  remained  all  through 
these  three  years  of  fierce  war. 


CHAPTER  n 

HOW  THE  DUAL,  MONAECHY  BECAME  WHAT  IT  IS 

A  motto  in  the  Hofburg  at  Vienna — Growth  in  power  of  the  Habsburgs 
due  to  fortunate  ma'rriages — Some  heiresses — In  the  days  of  Maxi- 
milian and  Charles  V — The  sun  never  set  in  their  dominions — 
Rudolph  the  ancestor — How  the  Habsburgs  permanently  acquired 
the  imperial  dignity — A  cunning  forgery — The  Tyrol  and  Trieste 
came  by  inheritance — Leading  trait  of  the  Magyars — Unbroken 
struggle  for  a  thousand  years — The  Magyars  held  back  the  Turks — 
Magna  Charta  of  King  Andrew  II — Maria  Theresa's  pitiful  plea 
to  her  Hungarian  lieges — The  days  of  1848 — ^Kossuth  and  Gorgey — 
The  Ausgleich  and  how  it  was  brought  about — Jealousy  and  dis- 
trust between  Austria  and  Himgary — Has  stood  the  test  of  time — 
The  wrongs  of  the  Czechs — Cheated  out  of  their  constitutional 
rights — Even  their  language  suppressed — The  Hradsheen  and  the 
imperial  counsellors — How  Czech  hatred  of  Austria  arose — A  par- 
liamentary fight  of  fifty  years. 

In-  the  throne  room  of  the  Hofburg  at  Vienna,  the 
quaintest  and  most  ancient  of  the  still  existing  royal  resi- 
dences in  Europe,  the  eye  meets,  here  and  there,  embossed 
or  in  intricately  twined  gilt  lettering,  the  mystic  dictum 
of  the  Habsburgs — A  E 1 0  U.  It  stands  for  the  proud 
boast :  Austria  erit  in  orhe  ultima;  Austria  will  last  for- 
ever. Is  it  a  vain  boast  ?  The  man  who  first  adopted  it  as 
the  motto  of  his  house,  the  Emperor  Frederick  III,  in 
1443,  surely  did  not  think  so.  He  and  his  after  him,  and 
quite  a  number  before  him,  for  generations  and  genera- 
tions had  brought  Austria  out  of  slight  and  humble  begin- 

26 


HOW  DUAL  MONARCHY  BECAME  WHAT  IT  IS    27 

nings  up  to  the  zenith  of  power,  to  the  very  top  of  earthly 
splendour. 

For  there  cannot  be  any  doubt  about  it:  the  peculiar 
policy  of  the  house  of  Habsburg  for  centuries  had  in  the 
end  been  almost  uniformly  successful.  The  keynote  to 
this  policy,  a  matrimonial  one  so  to  speak,  had  been  neatly 
hit  off  by  a  mediaeval  court  poet  when  he,  in  the  last  line 
of  a  distich,  advised  the  Habsburgs  to  still  adhere  to  it : 
Tu,  felix  Austria,  nube!  To  wed  heiresses  of  broad  lands, 
that  was,  for  a  long,  long  period,  the  chief  method  of 
steady  aggrandisement,  of  territorial  expansion.  It  was 
by  contracting  a  union  with  Margaret  of  Tyrol  (sur- 
named,  somewhat  naively,  MauUasch,  i.e.,  she  of  the 
drooping  mouth)  that  that  much-coveted  bridge  to  Italy 
fell  into  the  possession  of  the  Habsburgs.  It  was  again 
by  matrimonial  alliances  that  Styria,  Carniola  and  Carin- 
thia  fell  to  the  Habsburg  sceptre.  Most  important  of  all, 
it  was  by  marriages  arranged  for  his  granddaughter  and 
grandson  that  the  Emperor  Maximilian  (most  gifted, 
chivalrous  and  sympathetic,  though  somewhat  erratic 
scion  of  the  whole  line)  secured  to  his  house,  towards  the 
close  of  the  15th  and  the  dawn  of  the  16th  century,  a  glori- 
ous patrimony — Spain,  the  half  of  Italy  and  the  entire 
Netherlands.  And  his  grandson,  the  Emperor  Charles  V, 
it  was  for  whom  first  the  saw  was  coined  that  ''the  sun 
never  set  in  his  dominions."  For  as  King  of  Spain  his 
conquistadores,  the  Cortez  and  Pizarros  and  all  their 
tribe,  won  fresh  empires  in  the  New  World;  won  untold 
wealth  in  gold  and  treasure.  They  made  this  lucky 
Charles  the  mightiest  potentate  in  the  world  and  first 
tapped  for  him  the  inexhaustible  mines  of  Peru  and  Mex- 
ico. And  meanwhile  this  same  Charles,  wearing  the  im- 
perial crown  of  Germany,  was  faced  one  day,  at  the  Diet 
of  Worms,  by  a  bold  yet  simple  monk,  one  Martin  Luther, 


28    AUSTEIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

who  told  him  up  and  down:  *'I  cannot  otherwise,  God 
help  me!"  and  demanded  church  reform,  "in  head  and 
limbs, ' '  as  he  phrased  it.  And  as  this  plain-spoken  monk 
thus  bearded  the  majestic  lion  in  his  den,  he  probably  had 
not  even  the  slightest  glimmering  of  the  truth  that  it  was, 
in  fact,  this  religious  split  in  Germany  and  in  the  Aus- 
trian possessions  which,  in  the  end,  was  to  lead  to  vast 
diminution  of  power  for  Germany,  for  the  emperor,  for 
Austria,  this  religious  split  of  which  Martin  Luther  was 
the  harbinger,  the  unwitting  instrument  in  the  hands  of 
Providence. 

So,  then,  without  attempting  to  give  here  even  an  ab- 
breviated history  of  the  Habsburgs  (of  whose  doings  I 
speak  more  extensively  in  another  chapter)  or  of  Austria- 
Hungary,  it  is  yet  necessary  to  dwell  a  little  more  par- 
ticularly on  the  ways  and  means  employed  in  swelling, 
almost  without  a  break,  the  size  and  resources  of  what  is 
now  known  as  the  Dual  Monarchy. 

In  1273  it  was  that  the  noted  forbear,  Rudolph  of  Habs- 
burg  (whose  surname  really  was  a  contraction  of  Ha- 
hicMshuYg,  i.e.,  the  burg,  the  castle,  of  the  Hahicht,  the 
hawk,  situated  in  the  Aargau,  now  forming  a  part  of  re- 
publican Switzerland  and  in  a  most  disgraceful  state  of 
decay,  as  I  saw  with  my  own  eyes)  first  started  the  Habs- 
burgs on  their  brilliant  career.  For,  after  a  lengthy  in- 
terregnum, during  which  the  imperial  crown  of  Germany 
had  gone  a-begging,  being  scorned  by  Richard  of  Corn- 
wall, an  Englishman,  and  by  a  Castilian  don  as  well,  the 
seven  electors  of  the  "Holy  Roman  Empire  of  the  Teu- 
tonic Nation"  finally  made  choice  of  this  small  Count  Ru- 
dolph to  wear  the  glittering  bauble.  For  Count  Rudolph 
of  the  Habichtsburg  had  lorded  it  up  to  that  hour  over 
but  a  rather  restricted  and  insignificant  domain,  situate 
partly  in  Alsace,  partly  in  Switzerland  and  Suabia,  a  ter- 


HOW  DUAL  MONAECHY  BECAME  WHAT  IT  IS    29 

ritory  altogether  measuring  but  a  couple  of  hundred 
square  miles  and  yielding  revenues  none  too  ample.  But 
prudent  and  peace-loving  and  shrewd  in  his  dealings  this 
Habsburg  ancestor  undeniably  was,  and  by  defeating  the 
rebellious  Ottocar  of  Bohemia  in  a  pitched  battle  on  the 
plains  near  Vienna  and  wholly  overcoming  him,  this  wise 
Eudolph,  after  the  death  of  the  doughty  Ottocar,  laid 
claims  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  Ostmark,  or  Eastern 
Marches,  tirst  established  by  Charlemagne  as  a  protective 
wall  against  the  heathen  Avars  and  Magyars.  And  out 
of  this  pitiful  nucleus,  the  small  and  but  thinly  populated 
Ostmark,  Austria  has  grown  and  developed. 

True,  subsequently  the  Habsburgs  lost  most  of  their 
ancient  patrimony  on  older  German  soil  by  the  rising  of 
the  original  Swiss  cantons.  The  latter,  tyrannised  over 
by  the  hot-headed  Albrecht,  Rudolph's  rash  descendant, 
gained  their  independence,  partially  at  least.  And  later 
they  won  it  wholly.  But  as  I  intimated  in  the  foregoing, 
the  Habsburgs  did  much  more  than  make  good  their 
losses  in  this  lengthy  strife  with  obstreperous  Swiss 
mountaineers  by  adding,  little  by  little,  to  their  Austrian 
lands  in  the  east.  To  this  task  these  earlier  Habsburgs 
devoted  all  the  astuteness  their  brains  were  capable  of, 
all  the  patience  and  all  the  foresight  of  a  cunning  spider. 
This  task,  that  of  gaining  steadily  new  accretions  to 
their  territory,  quite  sensibly  appeared  to  the  most  of 
them  a  far  more  weighty  one  than  obtaining  or  keeping 
the  imperial  electoral  crown.  Only  one  of  them,  another 
Rudolph  of  Habsburg,  who  had  married,  at  the  early  age 
of  nineteen,  a  daughter  of  the  Emperor  Charles  IV, (who 
was  himself,  though,  of  the  Luxemburg  house  and  also 
chosen  King  of  Bohemia),  had  the  ambition  to  be  entitled 
at  least  to  the  rights  of  an  imperial  elector.  So  eager  was 
he,  indeed,  for  this  empty  honour,  that  he  did  not  scruple 


30    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

to  engage  in  an  elaborate  stratagem  for  the  purpose,  part 
and  parcel  of  which  was  barefaced  forgery.  Finally,  a 
sort  of  compromise  was  acceded  to.  It  was  this  same  Ru- 
dolph who  founded  the  University  of  Vienna  and  began 
to  build  the  present  structure  of  St.  Stephen's  Cathedral 
there,  in  1356.  It  was  in  1437  when  the  Emperor  Sigis- 
mund  died,  the  same  who  by  right  of  inheritance  had  be- 
come King  of  Hungary  as  well  as  of  Bohemia,  without 
leaving  a  son.  His  successor  then  was  Albert  of  Austria, 
husband  of  his  daughter.  Albert  the  Habsburger  next, 
in  1438,  was  elected  Emperor,  and  thus  we  see  for  the  first 
time  the  union  of  Austria,  Hungary  and  Bohemia  accom- 
plished under  an  Imperial  head  of  the  Habsburg  line. 
From  that  time,  too,  the  crown  of  the  Empire  remained 
in  the  family.  However,  the  elder  line,  the  Austrian 
branch,  became  extinct  in  1457,  and  the  Styrian,  next  of 
kin,  came  in,  bringing  with  them  their  sovereign  territor- 
ies of  Carinthia,  Carniola,  the  Tyrol,  and  the  City  of 
Trieste  (with  immediate  vicinity),  affording  an  outlet  to 
the  sea.  All  this  besides  Styria,  itself  a  good-sized  bit  of 
land. 

It  would  require  a  great  deal  more  space  than  is  here 
at  my  disposal  to  relate  all  the  ups  and  downs  of  the 
Habsburgs  from  this  time  on  until  the  present.  But  a  few 
more  facts  must  at  least  be  mentioned.  Thus,  for  a  time 
the  sovereignty  of  both  Bohemia  and  Hungary  slipped 
again  out  of  the  grasp  of  the  Habsburgs.  And  it  was  ow- 
ing to  the  successful  matrimonial  policy  of  the  Habsburg 
emperor  Maximilian,  to  which  I  referred  before,  that, 
after  the  disaster  of  Mohacs  (in  1526)  and  the  death  of 
King  Louis  of  Hungary  there,  the  two  crowns  were  finally 
reunited  under  the  Habsburgs.  What  independence  Bo- 
hemia had  still  enjoyed  by  her  turn  in  fortune  she  lost 
completely  by  the  battle  of  the  White  Mountain  near 


HOW  DUAL  MONARCHY  BECAME  WHAT  IT  IS    31 

Prague,  in  1620,  and  during  the  Thirty  Years'  War  and 
the  religious  persecution  which  it  engendered.  The  so- 
called  ''counter-reformation,"  under  Jesuit  direction  en- 
gineered from  Vienna,  nowhere  wrought  its  evil  courses 
with  greater  sternness  and  persistence  than  in  Bohemia, 
at  last  completely  stamping  out  Protestantism  and  racial 
aspirations,  at  least  for  200  years. 

The  case  was  different  in  Hungary,  largely  because  of 
the  different  temper  and  racial  characteristics  of  the 
dominant  element  there,  the  Magyars.  Through  all  vicis- 
situdes and  through  all  political  changes  that  country  ex- 
perienced, it  retained  its  strong  spirit  of  independence. 
Not  only  that  but  it  also  remained  (save  for  a  short  period 
under  the  Emperor  Leopold  I)  an  elective  monarchy,  not- 
withstanding that  her  statesmen  recognised  the  heredi- 
tary claims  of  the  Habsburgs.  Politically  speaking,  the 
outstanding  trait  of  the  Magyar  is  indeed  his  love  of  na- 
tional independence.  Like  a  scarlet  thread  it  runs 
through  all  the  woof  of  his  existence  as  a  nation.  Cou- 
pled with  a  stubborn  will  and  an  extraordinary  skill  in 
assimilating  other  racial  fragments,  there  is  a  ruthless 
political  craft,  and  fate  had  ordained  that  when  his  con- 
quering hosts  first  swept  down  into  ancient  Pannonia, 
into  the  lowlands  of  the  middle  Danube,  of  the  Theiss  and 
Maros,  they  drove  an  irresistible  wedge  into  what  other- 
wise would  have  been  solidly  Slavic  soil.  It  gave  the 
Magyar,  though  numerically  inferior,  something  which 
alone  made  it  possible  for  him  to  play  for  a  thousand 
years  the  successful  role  of  the  conqueror ;  namely,  a  thea- 
tre of  action  so  centrally  located  that  of  necessity  the  sur- 
rounding Slav  remnants  of  nations  had  to  become  accre- 
tions under  his  rule,  had  to  help  crystallise  a  Magyar  en- 
tity. The  Magyar,  in  fact,  was  the  kernel,  strong  though 
small  in  number,  and  indomitably,  through  all  the  turbu- 


32    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

lent  vicissitudes  of  a  long  national  history,  tlie  Magyar 
(pronounced:  Mad'yar)  fulfilled  his  self-arrogated  his- 
torical mission  of  maintaining  the  land  of  his  fathers  as  a 
stout  bulwark  of  European,  of  Western,  of  Christian  civi- 
lisation against  the  ceaseless  onrush  of  the  Moslem 
hordes.  With  Magyar  valour  indeed,  the  bulwark  of  Occi- 
dental culture,  full  of  fissures  and  breaches  as  it  mostly 
was,  would  have  succumbed  on  several  occasions.  In  the 
days  of  the  great  Soliman  it  came  near  falling  a  prey  to 
Turkish  lust  of  conquest,  for  the  might  of  the  Padishah 
was  then,  early  in  the  16th  century,  at  its  zenith. 

But  not  Hungary  and  the  Magyar  alone — Austria,  too, 
bore  her  share  in  this  defensive  contest  with  the  fanatical 
Turk,  a  contest  gathering  momentum  for  centuries  and 
then  as  slowly  ebbing  off.  As  late  as  1683,  we  all  remem- 
ber, Vienna  almost  fell  before  a  giant  Moslem  army,  and 
the  memories  of  that  siege  and  of  the  final  rescue  is  even 
at  this  day  very  vivid  in  the  gay  capital  of  the  Danube, 
since  local  chronicles  have  served  to  perpetuate  it. 

The  "Turkish  Peril"  is  past.  No  longer  does  it 
threaten  the  Occident.  From  haughty  assailant  attempt- 
ing world  conquest  the  Turk  for  generations  had  to  be 
content  with  the  inglorious  part  of  Europe's  "Sick 
Man,"  though  of  late  he  has  seemingly  risen  from  his 
sickbed.  But  at  any  rate,  this  much  is  certain,  that  our 
Western,  our  Christian,  our  milder,  more  complex  and 
less  predatory  civilisation  was  largely  preserved  by  Hun- 
gary and  Austria.  For  four  centuries  the  men  of  these 
two  countries  dauntlessly  fought  against  the  barbarian 
throngs  that  were  launched  ever  anew,  from  the  seat  of 
Moslem  power  at  Stamboul,  for  destruction  and  devasta- 
tion, and  let  us  not  forget  that  the  last  dangerous  Turk 
irruption,  that  of  1683,  had  been  brought  about  very 
largely  by  the  machinations  and  promises  of  his  "Most 


HOW  DUAL  MONARCHY  BECAME  WHAT  IT  IS    33 

Christian  Majesty,"  Louis  XIV,  the  Roi  Soleil  of  Ver- 
sailles, he,  the  bitterest  foe  of  the  Habsburgs.  The  civili- 
sation of  our  days  owes  indubitably  a  vast  debt  of  grati- 
tude to  Hungary  and  Austria  on  that  account,  an  histori- 
cal debt  never  liquidated.  The  greater  part  of  that  debt 
is  owing  to  the  Magyars,  but  a  not  inconsiderable  fraction 
goes  to  the  share  of  Austria  and  the  Habsburgs  as  well. 
It  may  also  be  maintained  that  it  has  been  in  great  meas- 
sure  due  to  the  numberless  enforced  wars  both  Hungary 
and  Austria  had  to  wage  against  the  ever-present ' '  Turk- 
ish peril"  that  the  Austria-Hungary  of  our  own  day  has 
not  progressed  farther  on  the  road  to  genuine  prosperity 
and  enlightened  civic  liberty.  These  Turkish  wars  kept 
both  countries  for  several  centuries  in  turmoil  and  strife. 
They  were  much  the  cause  of  their  turbulent  history. 
They  were  a  perpetual  drain  on  their  blood  and  treasure. 
They  hampered  their  progress  and  their  peaceable  consol- 
idation enormously.  Many  of  the  ablest  and  most  patri- 
otic Hungarians  and  Austrians  perished  on  the  battlefield 
fighting  the  warriors  of  Islam,  and  not  a  few  of  the  best 
Magyar  rulers  even  did  so.  If  Hungary  and  Austria  had 
no  other  claims  to  our  thanks  than  that,  at  least  this  one 
must  be  conceded  by  all  impartial  men. 

However,  it  is  time  to  go  back  to  our  sketchy  outline 
of  the  evolution  of  the  Dual  Monarchy. 

It  would  be  foreign  to  my  purpose  to  trace  all  the  turns 
in  the  tortuous  story.  Austria's  close  connection  with 
Hungary  dates,  as  I  pointed  out,  from  1526.  Since  that 
time,  though,  there  were  periods  of  shorter  or  longer  du- 
ration when  Hungary,  either  wholly  or  in  part,  escaped 
the  clutch  of  the  Habsburgs.  It  must  be  recalled  that 
Hungary  was  an  elective  kingdom,  and  under  the  Magna 
Charta  granted  her  by  the  famous  ruler,  Andrew  II,  in 
1222,  she  was  even  a  constitutional  one.     Indeed,  it  is 


34    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

noteworthy  that  in  this  "Golden  Bull,"  seven  centuries 
ago,  the  rights  of  the  people  were  so  generously  appor- 
tioned that  even  the  ''right  of  forcible  resistance"  (with- 
out entailing  the  charge  of  high  treason)  against  en- 
croachments or  usurpation  of  royal  prerogatives  was 
therein  specifically  set  forth.  Thus  it  was  that  again  and 
again  the  diet  or  the  estates  of  Hungary  exercised  to  the 
full  their  rights  in  choosing  somebody  other  than  a  Habs- 
burg  for  their  King.  John  Hunyady  and  his  son,  the 
doughty  Matthias  Corvinus,  were  among  the  earlier  and 
highly  popular  kings  of  native  stock.  The  latter  even,  in 
1485,  marched  against  the  Habsburg  emperor,  Frederick, 
and  actually  seized  Vienna. 

But  even  after  the  more  intimate  union  brought  about 
in  1526,  there  were  times  of  estrangement,  of  stress,  of 
rebellion  more  or  less  lasting  or  critical.  Ferdinand  of 
Austria,  though  acknowledged  king  by  the  larger  number 
of  the  great  Hungarian  nobles,  for  many  years,  after  the 
battle  of  Mohacs,  had  to  contend  with  a  rival  king,  John 
Zapolya,  a  formidable  warrior  of  Slav  origin.  And  later, 
in  the  early  and  again  in  the  middle  part  of  the  17th  cen- 
tury, several  great  Magyar  rebels  (whose  names  even  to- 
day are  household  words  throughout  Hungary)  such  as 
Bethlen  Gabor,  Francis  and  George  Rakoczy,  are  heard 
of.  Emeric  Tokoly,  too,  during  the  reign  of  the  Emperor 
Leopold  I  (1657-1705),  was  one  of  those  bold  leaders 
against  Habsburg  rule.  Much  of  all  this  rivalry  and  in- 
ternal strife,  however,  was  owing  to  Turkish  instigation, 
especially  during  the  period  when  Transylvania  was  still 
held  by  the  Turks  after  a  fashion.  It  subsided  after 
Transylvania  had  been  added  to  the  Austrian  crown,  and 
the  last  ruler  of  Transylvania,  Prince  Michael  Apafy, 
ended  his  days  ingloriously  in  his  Vienna  exile,  about 
1707. 


HOW  DUAL  MONARCHY  BECAME  WHAT  IT  IS    35 

The  next  serious  trouble  arose  when  Maria  Theresa, 
daughter  of  the  Emperor  Charles  VI,  under  the  provi- 
sions of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  laboriously  obtained  by 
her  father  from  the  estates  of  Hungary,  Bohemia  and 
other  parts  of  the  monarchy,  actually  ascended  the  throne 
in  1739  and  had  her  rights  of  succession  at  once  forcibly 
disputed  by  King  Frederick  of  Prussia  and  the  Elector 
of  Bavaria.  It  should  be  said  here  that  the  fundamental 
law  of  Hungary,  the  Golden  Bull  of  King  Andrew  II,  had 
been  several  times  modified  in  the  course  of  five  centuries, 
and  that  it  had  been  treated  more  or  less  as  obsolete  ever 
since  the  accession  of  the  Habsburgs.  For  one  thing,  the 
clause  granting  the  right  of  forcible  resistance  to  the  sub- 
jects of  the  crown  had  been  solemnly  and  repeatedly  elim- 
inated from  the  original  text. 

Maria  Theresa,  though,  was  a  wise  and  energetic  ruler. 
In  sorry  danger  of  losing  her  throne  she  appealed  per- 
sonally to  the  Hungarian  parliament,  clasping  her  infant 
son  to  her  breast.  In  Latin,  then  the  state  and  public 
tongue  of  Hungary,  she  pleaded  her  dire  case,  and  the  in- 
born chivalry  of  the  Magyars  caught  fire.  Flashing  their 
sabres  in  the  sunlit  breeze  on  the  Coronation  Hill  at 
Presburg  (now  officially  termed  Poszony),  they  shouted 
with  one  voice :  Moriamur  pro  nostra  rege,  Maria  Ther- 
esa! In  short,  they  crowned  her  their  "king,"  and  she 
rode  boldly  up  the  steep  path  swinging  her  sword  to  the 
four  quarters  and  calling  out  the  symbolical  oath  of  fealty 
to  her  people.  This  was  in  1740,  and  it  was  127  years 
later,  in  1867,  that  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  suffered 
the  ceremony  of  a  special  coronation  as  King  of  Hun- 
gary to  be  repeated  in  his  own  person.  All  the  interven- 
ing rulers  had  scorned  to  do  so,  although  the  constitution 
of  Hungary  solemnly  provides  for  it.  It  was  largely  due 
to  the  loyalty  of  her  Hungarian  and  Croatian  subjects 


36    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

that  the  Empress  Maria  Theresa  was  in  the  end  able  to 
keep  her  crown,  even  against  such  a  military  genius  as 
Frederick  the  Great.  It  did  not  hinder  the  fact,  however, 
that  the  same  Maria  Theresa  curtailed  the  constitutional 
rights  of  Hungary  as  much  as  she  dared,  and  that  her  son 
and  successor,  Joseph  II,  did  likewise. 

Another  century  elapsed.  The  terrific  shaking  up  of 
the  Napoleonic  era  had  left  Austria-Hungary  impover- 
ished, but,  thanks  to  the  Congress  of  Vienna,  in  1815,  oth- 
erwise not  much  the  worst,  with  her  territories  restored 
and  on  Italian  soil  even  enlarged.  Hungary  all  this  time 
had  been  treated  as  an  integral  portion  of  the  Austrian 
domain,  not  as  an  independent,  sovereign  realm.  A  pe- 
riod of  repression  set  in  under  the  unspeakable  Mephis- 
topheles  of  Europe,  Prince  Clemens  Mettemich,  the  Aus- 
trian statesman  who  tried  to  turn  back  the  wheel  of  time 
to  absolutism  and  a  shackled  public  life.  But  in  1848,  when 
France  had  turned  out  Louis  Philippe  and  even  Berlin 
had  risen  against  the  Hohenzollems,  the  Magyars  once 
more  rose  in  rebellion.  This  time  they  wanted  separation, 
independence,  freedom.  They  beat  the  Austrian  generals 
in  the  field,  but  Nicholas  I  of  Russia  interposed,  "for  the 
sake  of  the  principle  of  divine  rulership, "  as  he  expressed 
it.  And  to  Russia,  not  to  Austria,  Gorgey,  the  ablest  mili- 
tary leader  of  the  Hungarians,  with  his  last  legions  sur- 
rendered at  Vilagos  in  August,  1849.  Kossuth,  the  dicta- 
tor, fled  first  to  Turkey,  next  to  America,  and  Haynau, 
the  ''hyena,"  held  high  revel  among  the  defeated  Hun- 
garians, hanging,  shooting,  jailing  them  by  thousands. 

Then  reactionism  followed.  The  young  emperor,  Fran- 
cis Joseph,  under  the  tutelage  of  his  stern  mother,  the 
Archduchess  Sophia,  once  more  tried  the  old  Habsburg 
remedy :  suppression  of  liberty  in  every  form,  a  gagged 
press,  abolition  of  representative  government.    But  1866 


HOW  DUAL  MONAECPIY  BECAME  WHAT  IT  IS    37 

came.  Austria  was  whipped  by  Prussia  at  Koniggratz. 
Austria,  hitherto  exercising  hegemony  in  Germany,  had 
to  step  aside  and  let  Prussia  smash  the  old  effete  German 
Federation  and  erect  a  new  and  more  efficient  structure  in 
its  stead.  The  war  of  1870-71  intervened.  And  with  it 
Austria's  last  hope  of  re-establishing  her  power  over 
Germany  w^as  gone.  The  new  German  Empire  became  a 
fact. 

Even  before  this  last  event  came  to  pass,  Austria  by 
the  stroke  of  genius,  or  else — as  many  take  it — by  the  ill- 
fated  hand,  of  Count  Beust,  a  second-rate  statesman  and 
brilliant  diplomat,  put  herself  on  an  entirely  new  basis. 
For  Count  Beust,  v/ho  from  being  the  guiding  spirit  of 
little  Saxony  had  been  called  in  by  Francis  Joseph  as  the 
best  expert  he  could  think  of,  created  that  wonderful 
Ausgleich  between  Austria  and  Hungary  which  is  still  in 
force  at  this  hour.  Ausgleich  is  a  German  word  which 
means  "compromise";  and  that  it  truly  was.  For  it  did 
not  fully  satisfy  the  Hungarians,  inasmuch  as  it  granted 
but  a  limited  autonomy  to  Hungary  instead  of  a  perfect 
one,  and  it  met  also  with  the  disapproval  of  large  sections 
of  the  Austrian  peoples.  In  Hungary  indeed  the  Aus- 
gleich fell  far  short  of  expectations  of  the  Independence 
(or  48er)  Party,  which  was  and  is  much  stronger  than  its 
mere  representation  in  Parliament  would  suggest,  since 
it  embodies  the  real  and  instinctive  feelings  of  the  masses 
towards  Austria.  And  in  Austria  again  there  has  been 
engendered  by  it  a  rather  widespread  sentiment  of  down- 
right hostility  towards  the  more  fortunate  half  of  the 
monarchy.  Indeed,  jealousy  of  Hungary's  wider  share  of 
political  freedom  and  political  influence,  more  than  com- 
mensurate with  Hungary's  smaller  size  and  population 
and  economic  development,  possesses  the  breast  of  the 
average  Austrian,  a  direct  consequence  of  the  Ausgleich 


38    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

which  made  Hungary  unquestionably  from  a  former  ap- 
pendage or  dependency  the  dominating  part  of  the  whole. 
This  sentiment  of  mutual  dislike  and  distrust  has  cropped 
out  on  a  number  of  vital  occasions  throughout  the  present 
war.  But  it  has  not  hindered  the  fact  that  Hungary,  ever 
since  1867,  has  steadily  climbed  upward,  not  only  in  the 
matter  of  political  influence  and  internal  consolidation 
(despite  the  racial  strife  which,  there  also,  has  been  caus- 
ing much  trouble),  but  in  economic  prosperity  as  well. 
For  the  economic  aspects  of  the  Ausgleich  have  been  of 
even  greater  importance  than  the  political  ones.  Aboiit 
these  things  more  is  said  elsewhere.  Here  I  merely  state 
the  broad  facts. 

Nevertheless,  the  Ausgleich  has  stood  the  test  of  time. 
It  has  borne  the  frequent  strain  of  strong  tendencies  on 
both  sides  of  the  Leitha  (the  frontier  stream  dividing 
Hungary  from  Austria)  making  ever  for  separation  and 
partition.  There  were,  it  is  true,  periods  when  a  total 
break  seemed  imminent,  when  in  Hungary  the  distinctly 
anti- Austrian  elements  were  consciously  working  towards 
that  end.  Such  a  period,  for  example,  was  the  one  of 
1897  to  1907,  the  economic  situation  and  the  question  of 
the  proper  quota  towards  the  government  being  the  pre- 
text, and  when  the  thin  wedge  of  separation  nearly  caused 
a  split.  The  compromise  of  1867  weathered  the  long 
crisis  because  on  the  whole  it  is  based  on  the  well-under- 
stood interests  of  both  countries,  and  because  the  two 
largest  parties  in  Parliament,  the  Constitutional  one  un- 
der the  guidance  of  Count  Julius  Andrassy  and  the  Lib- 
eral one  (now  in  power)  led  by  Count  Stephen  Tisza,  per- 
ceived that  clearly  and  counselled  moderation.  Thus,  on 
the  whole,  Hungary  entered  the  war  by  the  side  of  Aus- 
tria fairly  a  unit,  fairly  convinced  that  the  preservation 
of  the  Dual  Monarchy,  viewed  as  a  whole,  was  well  worth 


HOW  DUAL  MONARCHY  BECAME  WHAT  IT  IS    39 

fighting  for,  and  suppressing  old-time  sympathies  and 
antipathies.  For  up  to  the  outbreak  of  the  war  Hungarian 
sympathies,  individually  felt,  had  been  rather  Franco- 
phile and  Anglophile.  Of  that  there  could  be  no  doubt. 
It  was  dire  necessity  that  made  the  Hungarian  the  com- 
panion-in-arms not  only  of  the  Austrian,  his  quondam  op- 
pressor, but  of  the  German,  with  whom  he  had  ever  been 
united  by  very  little  fellow-feeling,  since  his  whole  mental 
and  moral  habitus  antagonises  the  Teuton  conception  of 
life  and  its  ideals. 

It  was  not  so  with  the  Czechs  of  the  monarchy,  how- 
ever. Of  all  the  Slavs  living  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Austrian  double-eagle,  the  Czech  does  so  most  unwil- 
lingly. The  long  history  of  this,  the  most  gifted  and  en- 
ergetic of  all  the  Slav  tribes,  goes  far  to  explain  this 
strong  and  undying  hatred  of  his  Austrian  master.  I 
must  confess  that  I,  prior  to  my  long  residence  in  Vienna, 
had  failed  to  grasp  the  underlying  causes  of  Czech  dis- 
content, although  repeated  previous  visits  of  shorter  du- 
ration to  beautiful  Bohemia  had  certainly  acquainted  me 
with  the  fact  of  its  existence.  History  explains  much. 
Ever  since  the  Czech  people  first  emerged  from  the  dim 
light  of  legendary  lore,  from  the  days  of  fabled  Libussa 
on,  it  met  the  racially  so  different,  so  much  more  numer- 
ous, so  much  better  organised  German  in  its  path.  From 
the  early  Middle  Ages  up  to  fifty  years  ago,  the  Czech  was 
the  helot,  the  hewer  of  wood  and  drawer  of  water.  Ever 
the  German,  wherever  he  came  in  contact  with  him  and 
wherever  he  tried  to  compete,  had  the  best  of  it.  German 
superiority  and  greater  efficiency,  and  the  impotence  of 
the  Slav  to  make  headway  against  it,  already  led  Duke 
Boleslav,  ages  and  ages  ago,  to  issue  a  decree  for  the  ex- 
pulsion of  all  Germans  from  Bohemia.  But  it  was  in 
vain.    The  more  potent  German  prevailed.    And  it  was 


40    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

owing  all  along  to  the  peculiar  Slav  nature  and  Slav 
modes  of  life  of  the  Czech.  From  prehistoric  times  on  the 
Czech,  like  all  Slavs,  has  been  a  tiller  of  the  soil — not  a 
warrior,  not  a  herdsman,  a  hunter,  a  builder  of  and  dwel- 
ler in  towns,  not  a  mechanic,  a  trader,  a  craftsman.  In 
all  these  points  the  German  was  much  more  than  his 
match.  The  Czech  towns  in  Bohemia  owed  their  rise  and 
prosperity  to  the  German  colonist  without  whom  there 
would  have  been  no  commerce,  no  artisan  skill,  no  or- 
ganised government  in  his  own  land.  The  German,  in 
short,  was  indispensable  to  Czech  material  welfare  and 
the  development  of  Bohemia,  after  the  breaking  down  of 
the  great  Slav  confederation  of  Svatopluk  of  Moravia. 
The  Czech  rulers  of  Bohemia  were  forced  to  acknowledge 
it.  They  could  not  do  without  the  aid,  the  enterprise,  the 
steady  industry  of  their  Teuton  guests,  subjects,  allies, 
citizens,  and  builders.  Any  number  of  Czech  ^' bulls," 
decrees,  letters  of  privilege,  etc.,  attest  the  fact,  from 
about  900  A.D.  till  the  16th  and  17th  century  and  even 
later. 

Then,  on  top  of  this  hateful  feeling  of  inferiority  that 
had  lived  darkly  in  the  simple  Slav  soul  of  the  Czech  for 
so  long,  came  the  trickery  first,  then  the  fiendish  cruelty 
and  systematic  persecution  of  the  Habsburgs,  once  Bo- 
hemia had  passed  under  their  sway.  The  Czechs  had 
ancient  historic  rights  to  have  their  country  held  an  inde- 
pendent sovereign  kingdom,  just  as  much  as  had  the  Mag- 
yars. When  the  Habsburgs,  in  1526,  by  inheritance, 
finally  got  a  firm  hold  on  Bohemia,  they  pledged  them- 
selves to  uphold  and  defend  the  dignity  of  Bohemia  as  a 
separate  and  distinct  nation.  They  broke  those  solemn 
vows.  They  governed  Bohemia  as  a  mere  dependency. 
They  evaded  coronation  ceremonies,  a  symbolic  act  which 
meant  so  much  in  those  days,  or  flatly  refused  to  have 


HOW  DUAL  MONARCHY  BECAME  WHAT  IT  IS    41 

themselves  crowned  as  distinct  kings  of  Bohemia.  The 
country,  weakened  and  devastated  by  the  century-long 
Hussite  wars,  waged  partly  for  a  purer  faith  and  partly 
for  national  liberty,  was  made  the  grazing  spot  for  Habs- 
burg  favourites,  creatures  of  the  court  of  Vienna.  Worse, 
for  with  the  day,  in  1618,  when  the  Czech  rebels  flung  out 
of  the  window  of  the  Hradsheen  in  Prague  the  imperial 
counsellors,  an  act  which  started  the  sanguinary  Thirty 
Years'  War,  Bohemia  was  steeped  in  blood  and  ruin. 
The  Hussite  heresy,  under  the  direction  of  the  Jesuit 
confessor  of  the  Emperor  Ferdinand,  was  stamped  out 
in  woe  and  waste.  Bohemia  for  the  next  two  hundred 
years  was  a  land  of  desolation,  her  peasants  serfs,  her 
native  nobility  destroyed  and  expropriated,  her  rights 
and  prerogatives  denied  and  disregarded.  The  very  lan- 
guage, Czech,  was  tabooed. 

How  can  one  wonder  at  the  fact  that  such  sowing  could 
only  bring  in  the  end  a  bitter  harvest  of  hate  ? 

When  Vienna  rose  against  her  absolutist  government 
in  1848,  when  all  Hungary  rose,  all  the  Italian  possessions 
of  the  Habsburgs,  Prague  rose  likewise.  But  the  rising 
was  stifled  by  the  military.  Then  came  1866,  the  defeat 
of  the  Habsburgs  on  the  battlefield,  and  the  last  slender 
link  that  had  bound  Bohemia  to  Germany's  fortunes 
broke  forever.  Austria,  under  Count  Beust,  had  to  tread 
new  ways,  and  peace  was  made  with  Hungary;  peace  was 
also  sought  for  with  Bohemia.  But  the  Czechs  were  not  so 
gullible  as  of  yore.  They  deliberately  resolved  to  win 
their  own  salvation  by  their  own  efforts.  Ever  since 
1867  they  have  been  engaged  in  an  unvarying  parlia- 
mentary campaign  leading,  they  trusted,  to  independ- 
ence and  complete  autonomy  (under  a  king  of  their  own 
who  might  also  call  himself  Emperor  of  Austria  if  he 
chose),  under  a  constitution  of  their  own,  under  laws  of 


42     AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

their  own,  seeking  national  prosperity  once  more.  All 
this  was  denied  them.  Under  Hohenwart,  under  Taaffe, 
it  is  quite  true,  the  central  government  at  Vienna  made 
some  concessions,  in  the  matter  of  the  use  of  Czech  as  an 
administrative  language  and  in  the  matter  of  internal 
government  mainly,  but  the  Czechs  were  not  satisfied. 
They  wanted  more,  much  more. 

The  whole  Czech  problem  is  bristling  with  difficulties. 
For  it  is  complicated  unfortunately  by  the  fact  that  Bohe- 
mia is,  it  must  be  conceded,  a  favoured  region  by  nature, 
but  not  inhabited  by  a  homogeneous  people.  Of  its  total 
population  of  almost  seven  million,  some  three  millions 
nearly  are  of  German  stock,  and  the  latter  are  even  to- 
day the  more  progressive  and  wealthier  part.  In  the 
struggle  for  preservation  of  their  own  language  and  race, 
those  German  Bohemians  are  necessarily  deeply  opposed 
to  their  Czech  fellow-countrymen  who  are  doing  their 
best  to  Czechisise  them.  It  is  this  feature  of  the  case 
which  makes  a  final  and  satisfactory  solution  so  over- 
poweringly  hard.  Geographically  and  tactically  consid- 
ered, the  Czechs,  as  they  have  the  advantage  of  superior 
numbers,  have  also  the  advantage  of  occupying  the  core, 
the  very  heart  of  Bohemia.  Being  an  agricultural  race, 
the  Czechs  settled — in  the  dim,  distant  past,  probably 
about  the  year  450  A.D. — in  the  flat  and  fertile  lowland 
forming  the  centre  of  the  country,  while  the  Bohemians 
of  Teutonic  stock  dwell  in  a  semi-circle  around  them  in 
the  mountainous  and  densely  wooded  ridges  that  border 
on  Saxony  to  the  north,  on  Bavaria  to  the  west,  and  on 
German-speaking  Upper  Austria  to  the  east  and  south. 
In  fact,  they  are  hemmed  in  on  every  side  by  their  racial 
foes,  the  men  of  German  stock.  In  addition  to  that,  the 
portions  of  Bohemia  settled  by  Germans  are  most  valu- 
able industrially,  for  they  contain  the  mines,  the  forests. 


HOW  DUAL  MONARCHY  BECAME  WHAT  IT  IS    43 

and  the  water  power,  hence  are  the  home  of  Austria's 
most  prosperous  manufactures. 

And  thus  it  is  that  for  fifty  years  past  the  Czechs  have 
wrought  patiently  by  day  and  night  to  achieve  their  ter- 
ritorial and  political  independence,  and  have  failed. 
Every  Austrian  statesman  during  that  long  time  has 
tried  his  wits  at  the  conundrum,  praising  this  or  that  new 
remedy — and  has  equally  failed.  And  thus  it  is  that  the 
Czechs  entered  this  war  with  the  sting  of  abasement, 
with  disloyalty  in  their  hearts. 


CHAPTER  III 

UNIQUE  FEATURES  FORMING  PART  OF  THE  PROCESS 

Owing  to  the  widely  differing  dates  when  the  component  parts  of  Aus- 
tria-Hungary were  acquired,  there  are  also  great  differences  in  their 
social  and  intellectual  development — The  scale  runs  from  almost 
primitive  conditions  to  highest  civilisation — Originally  the  whole  of 
Austrian  territory  was  inhabited  by  Slavs  and  Celts — Hungary  was 
Ancient  Pannonia  of  the  Romans;  Austria  was  Norieum;  Vienna 
was  Vindobona,  a  Roman  camp  in  the  midst  of  Celt  savages — Race 
and  national  feeling  of  comparatively  recent  rise — Buko\'ina  and 
Transylvania  as  model  exemplars — A  unique  feature  is  the  unim- 
paired aboriginal  character  of  the  various  populations — Reasons  for 
it — With  the  single  exception  of  the  Magyar  Kingdom,  the  Austrian 
and  Hmigarian  "lands"  are  nothing  but  fragments  of  former  poAver- 
ful  political  entities — The  East  Marches,  or  Ostmark,  and  Teutonis- 
ing  colonisation — Racial  renascence  of  the  Slovenes — There  was 
never  any  serious  attempt  made  to  weld  the  incongruous  fractions 
into  a  homogeneous  whole — The  population  of  Latin  stock  and  the 
Ladiners — How  to  differentiate. 

It  is  not  astonishing  that  so  little  is  generally  known 
outside  Austria-Hungary  of  the  real  conditions  under 
which  the  queer  assortment  of  races  and  ''nationalities" 
live  that  compose  the  whole.  For  the  subject  is  an  in- 
tricate one  and  full  of  pitfalls  to  the  uninitiated  stranger 
trying  to  grope  his  way  through  the  labyrinth.  Even  in 
Germany,  despite  the  centuries-old  political  and  economic 
relations  connecting  that  country  with  Austria-Hungary, 
and  despite  the  grave  importance  which  the  matter  has 
assumed  since  the  two  countries  became  close  allies,  the 

44 


UNIQUE  FEATURES  OF  PART  OF  PROCESS    45 

deepest  ignorance  and  the  most  curious  misapprehension 
very  commonly  prevail  as  to  the  inner  mechanism  of  the 
Dual  Monarchy.  In  the  course  of  the  war  many  editorial 
utterances  in  some  of  the  leading  journals  of  Germany 
have  betrayed  this  lack  of  knowledge,  and  not  a  few  of 
them  gave  deep  offence  in  Austria-Hungary  when  the 
contrary  impression  had  been  intended.  Not  even  China, 
another  land  of  mysteries,  is  so  universally  misunder- 
stood and  misjudged  as  is  Austria-Hungary.  And  the 
cause  of  it  lies  in  good  part  in  the  fact  that  the  theme  is 
really  very  complicated.  Some  of  the  errors  most  widely 
held  it  is  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  clear  up. 

Thus,  the  fact  most  amazing  to  the  stranger  endeavour- 
ing to  understand  Austria-Hungary,  namely,  the  enor- 
mous differences  in  the  scale  of  civilisation  obtaining 
there,  from  almost  primitive  conditions  to  the  highest 
range  of  social  and  intellectual  culture,  is  easily  accounted 
for.  It  is  necessary  to  keep  in  mind  the  genesis  of  the 
Dual  Monarchy  of  to-day.  The  various  provinces  and 
"lands"  making  it  up  were  acquired  at  different  times, 
many  of  them  by  peaceful  methods  (by  marriage  con- 
tracts, by  inheritance,  by  election,  by  statecraft,  etc.), 
others  by  conquest.  The  period  of  these  acquisitions  runs 
between  1273  and  1908.  Or  rather,  if  the  first  beginning 
of  Austria  is  included,  it  goes  back  to  still  remoter 
times.  For  it  was  during  the  reign  of  Charlemagne, 
about  800  A.D.,  that  that  great  Frankish  ruler  first 
founded  the  Ostmarh,  or  Eastern  Marches,  as  a  bulwark 
against  the  marauding  irruptions  of  the  Avars,  forerun- 
ners and  next  of  kin  to  the  Magyars,  and  out  of  this 
Ostmarh  has  grown  Austria.  Charlemagne  first  put  a 
Marhgraf  (or  Count  of  the  March)  in  power  there,  and 
subsequently  the  Babenbergs,  a  Frankish  (Middle  Ba- 
varian)  line,  ruled  there  as  dukes,  and  with  their  ex- 


46    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

tinction  and  the  defeat  and  death  on  the  battlefield  of 
the  other  claimant,  Ottocar  of  Bohemia,  the  Habsburgs, 
in  1273,  took  their  start.  Bosnia  and  Hercegovina,  as  all 
readers  remember,  were  not  annexed  till  1908,  and  the 
Bukovina,  for  instance,  was  not  won  for  Austria  till  the 
reign  of  Emperor  Joseph  II,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  18th 
century,  after  his  defeating  the  Turks  who  had  held 
sovereignty  of  it.  In  the  Bukovina  and  in  Transylvania, 
too,  both  of  them  domains  of  great  natural  attractions 
and  resources,  though  sorely  neglected,  one  may  study  to 
advantage  the  racial  make-up  of  each.  Bukovina 
(which  is  Ruthenian  for  ''Land  of  the  Beeches")  is  but 
the  size  of  one  of  our  smaller  New  England  states,  with 
a  population  of  500,000.  Yet  it  shows  remarkable  variety 
of  scenery  and  population.  For  besides  the  German- 
speaking  farming  colonies  whom  Joseph  II  induced  to 
settle  there  and  who  own  some  of  the  best  farm  lands 
but  do  not  comprise  more  than  a  population  all  told  of 
about  80,000  or  less,  there  is  the  Rumanian  element  in 
the  southeast  (adjoining  Rumania  proper),  forming 
about  the  most  retrograde  in  the  whole  monarchy,  but 
intensely  picturesque  in  all  their  ancient  customs  and 
mode  of  living;  then  the  Ruthenian  (or  Ukrainian) 
population,  in  the  east  and  north;  the  Polish  (small  but 
influential  by  wealth  and  landed  property) ;  the  large 
Jewish  element,  and  finally  the  small  Mag^^ar  admixture, 
towards  the  Western  portion.  These  all  hold  separate 
religious  views — the  Rumanians  being  Greek  Orthodox; 
the  Ruthenians  again  "United  Catholics"  (a  compromise 
between  the  Orthodox  and  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  and 
acknowledging  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope) ;  the  Jews, 
of  course,  Hebrews;  the  Germans,  mostly  Protestants; 
and  the  Magyars,  Roman  Catholics.  And  as  in  religion 
they  also  vary  greatly  in  degree  of  culture.    Besides,  the 


UNIQUE  FEATURES  OF  PART  OF  PROCESS  47 

Ruthenians  gravitate  more  or  less  towards  Russia,  the 
Rumanians    towards    Rumania,    the    Magyars    towards 
Hungary,  and  only  the  small  fragments  of  Jews  and 
Germans  were  loyally  Bukovinians,  without  any  political 
after-thought ;  and  only  they,  for  the  most  part,  make  use 
of  the  excellent  higher  schools  at  the  capital  of  the 
province,  a  charming  town  called  Czernovitz,  and  of  the 
small  but  in  every  sense  very  efficient  university  located 
there.    Then  in  scenery  there  are  the  fertile  bottom  lands 
of  the  Pruth,  the  Sereth  and  Dniester;  there  are  grand- 
iose mountain  ranges  covered  with  virgin  forest  and  there 
are  Alpine  glaciers — all  within  a  distance  of  a  few  miles. 
In  Transylvania,  another  province  (now  belonging  to  the 
St.  Stephen's  Crown  of  Hungary)  wrested  from  Turkey 
a  couple  of  centuries  ago,  conditions  are  very  similar. 
In  that   Switzerland   of  the   Southeast  there   are   two 
universities,  much  wealth,  much  mining  and  engineering, 
side  by  side  with  intense  ignorance  and  penury.  Illiteracy 
predominates,  as  I  pointed  out  elsewhere,  in  a  number  of 
the  most  backward  provinces,  such  as  Galicia,  Dalmatia, 
Croatia,  Slavonia,  yet  in  other  parts  of  the  monarchy 
there  is  scarcely  any.    In  the  two  provinces  of  Upper  and 
Lower  Austria  the  attendance  reaches  almost  100  per 
cent. ;  it  is  similar  in  Bohemia,  in  the  Magyar  portions  of 
Hungary,  in  Moravia,  in  Styria,  in  Salzburg,  in  Carin- 
thia;  but  in  the  almost  purely  Slavic  Carniola,  in  Istria, 
in  Gradiska  illiteracy  again  augments  at  a  frightful  rate. 
And  this  is  only  referring  to  mental  differences ;  economi- 
cally and  socially  the  differences  are  still  greater.   They 
must  be  accounted  for,  at  least  in  good  measure,  by  local 
conditions  arising  from  the  varying  dates  when  Chris- 
tianity, when  the  blessings  of  attendant  civilisation  were 
first  made  accessible  to  these  regions. 

A  cognate  argument  is  also  this :  What  is  now  known 


48    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

as  Austria  was  in  the  main  tlie  Province  of  Noricum  of 
the  Romans,  although  that  administrative  unit  comprised 
also  part  of  Bavaria.  Noricum  in  the  Roman  time  was 
sparsely  settled  by  tribes  of  Celtic  stock,  who  during 
the  ages  of  migration  in  the  early  centuries  of  the 
Christian  era  were  partly  exterminated,  driven  out  or 
forcibly  intermingled  with  Slavic  tribes  that  came  to 
settle  there,  having  themselves  been  made  to  yield  to 
Hunnish,  Avar  or  Magyar  conquering  hordes  that  pushed 
them  out  of  Moesia — the  Balkan  region — or  Pannonia, 
the  present  Hungary.  These  Southern  Slavs,  practically 
all  belonging  to  the  Serbian  race, — although  they  now 
call  themselves  Slovenes  and  their  vernacular  is  not 
precisely  the  same  as  that  of  the  Serbs  or  Croatians, — 
took  to  these  thinly  populated  Alpine  lands  in  the  hope 
that  there  they  would  be  out  of  the  way  of  trouble  and 
conquest.  Nor  were  they  in  the  main  mistaken.  They 
imposed,  by  means  of  their  greater  numbers,  by  inter- 
marriage and  by  coercion,  their  idiom  on  the  Celtic 
aborigines,  and  the  latter  were  completely  assimilated  by 
them.  For  a  number  of  centuries  those  Slav  immigrants 
were  actually  left  in  peace.  They  showed,  though,  one 
of  the  chief  traits  of  Slav  nature — the  incapacity  to 
organise  themselves  into  permanent  and  efficient  states. 
Thus  they  fell  easy  victims  to  the  pushing,  conquering 
Teutons  when  these  in  turn,  under  the  strong  impulse 
imparted  to  them  by  the  introduction  of  Christianity  and 
of  the  civilisation  that  followed  in  its  wake,  in  the  period 
of  Charlemagne  and  the  establishment  of  an  elective  but 
aggressive  German  Kingdom,  began,  first,  to  secure  their 
frontiers  against  the  predatory,  nomadic,  Turanian 
hordes  from  Hungary,  and  next  to  enlarge  these  borders 
on  the  line  of  least  resistance,  therefore  in  the  direction  of 
Slavic  lands  like  ''Austria,"  Styria,  Salzburg,  Carinthia 


UNIQUE  FEATURES  OF  PAET  OF  PROCESS    49 

and  Carniola.  Under  Charlemagne,  too,  began  the  settle- 
ment with  Germans  of  these  regions.  The  settlers,  war- 
like and  loaded  with  all  their  goods  and  chattels,  came 
for  the  most  part  from  what  is  now  Bavaria.  Hence,  too, 
the  dialect  spoken  to  this  day  by  the  German  populations 
of  those  districts  is  about  the  same  as  that  spoken  in 
the  mountainous  half  of  Bavaria.  As  a  passing  remark 
it  may  be  said,  while  skimming  this  ethnological  field, 
that  these  Bavarians  themselves  are  racially  a  mixture  of 
Teuton  and  Celt,  with  the  Celtic  indeed  predominating  in 
many  places.  That  also  explains  the  great  difference  in 
many  respects  between  them — the  real  Bavarians  of 
the  Alpine  tract — and  their  brothers  of  the  empire.  It 
may  even  be  said  that  many  of  these  Bavarians  resemble 
more  the  Celtic  Irish  than  the  Germans  further  north, 
as  in  their  pugnacity,  in  their  love  of  art,  their  thrift- 
lessness,  etc.  Any  close  observer  must  have  been  struck 
with  these  peculiarities.  Of  the  fact  of  this  race  mixture 
there  is  not  the  slightest  doubt.  Craniology  alone  would 
settle  that  question  if  historical  proofs  were  lacking, 
which  is  not  the  case. 

Now,  the  German  settlers  in  these  regions  to-day  called 
Austria  had  much  to  do  to  establish  themselves  firmly  in 
the  lands  held  by  force,  both  against  assailants  from 
within  and  without,  and  while  they  themselves,  by  reason 
of  close  ties  with  their  Teuton  homeland,  progressed  in 
civilisation  and  in  prosperity,  they  had  not  much  leisure 
and  effort  to  bestow  on  the  Slavic  population  they  had 
displaced  or  with  which  they  were  living  on  more  or 
less  amicable  terms  in  proximity.  Thus  it  happened  that 
these  Slavic  tribes  (whose  language  and  different 
manners  alone  were  sufficient  to  isolate  them)  were 
Christianised  much  later  only,  and  that  no  serious  and 
persistent  endeavour  was  made  to  bring  them  up  to  the 


50    AUSTEIA-HUNGARY;  POLYGLOT  EMPIEE 

intellectual  or  economic  level  of  their  new  Teutonic 
masters.  Besides,  these  things  require  much  time  and 
great  effort;  the  times  continued  troublous;  the  Slavs 
were  living  compactly  in  contiguous  territory  mostly, 
not  intermingled  as  regards  space  with  the  conquering 
race.  And  again  it  must  be  noted  that  the  date  of 
acquisition  of  the  various  wholly  or  partially  Slavic 
''crown  lands"  by  Austria  was  not  the  same  in  each  case, 
but  was  rather  divided  by  centuries.  Thus,  a  uniform 
level  of  civilisation  was  out  of  the  question. 

In  passing  it  might  be  mentioned  that  Vienna  itself 
was  originally  Slav,  and  that  fate,  which  plays  curious 
pranks  sometimes,  seems  rapidly  turning  that  city,  once 
the  great  centre  of  Teutonic  culture  in  the  East,  back 
again  into  a  Slavic  metropolis.  Vindobona  the  Romans 
called  it,  probably  from  a  Slavic  tribe,  the  Vinds  or 
Vends,  and  it  was  a  Roman  fortified  camp  in  the  midst 
of  Celt  savages.  Excavations  in  Vienna  itself  leave  no 
room  for  doubt  on  that  score.  During  my  stay  in  Vienna 
antiquarians  brought  many  proofs  to  the  surface,  some 
of  them  from  soil  right  under  the  heart  of  the  City. 
Then,  from  the  time  of  Charlemagne  on,  for  a  space  of 
eight  centuries  or  thereabouts,  Vienna  having  been  given 
a  Teutonised  form  of  its  old  name,  Wien,  became  indeed 
German  to  the  core,  as  its  entire  records  show.  But  with 
the  Habsburgs,  their  reigning  house,  the  Viennese,  too, 
gradually  lost  their  distinctively  German  character. 
Refugees  from  other  countries  settled  there,  under  the 
asgis  of  the  court,  in  larger  and  larger  numbers.  Immi- 
grants from  Bohemia,  from  the  Italian  possessions  of 
the  Habsburgs,  from  Hungary  and  from  every  other 
part  of  the  empire  came  in  steady  file.  To-day  the  popu- 
lation of  Vienna  is,  racially  considered,  at  the  very  least 
three-fourths  non-Teutonic.    In  features,  in  bearing,  in 


UNIQUE  FEATURES  OF  PART  OF  PROCESS  51 

complexion,  in  their  characteristics,  they  show  this 
plainly.  Picking  up  a  recent  city  directory  of  Vienna 
and  turning  over  its  leaves,  one  is  struck  by  the  fact  that 
a  score  of  pages  are  devoted  to  one  purely  Slavic  (Czech) 
name  alone,  and  that  other  Slavic,  Italian,  Hungarian 
names  abound  in  this  truth-telling  tome.  Carefully  ob- 
serving names  on  street  and  shop  signs,  the  same 
phenomenon  is  observed.  True,  the  dialect  spoken  by 
the  great  mass  of  the  people  of  Vienna  is  still  a  German, 
a  Bavarian,  one,  although  it  is  liberally  mingled  with 
Slav  words.  The  school  language,  German,  accounts  for 
that.  The  vernacular  is  the  last  thing  that  changes.  But 
the  percentage  of  unmixed  Slavs  (especially  Czechs)  is 
all  the  while  increasing.  The  unintermittent  migration 
of  the  Czechs  from  Bohemia  and  Moravia  to  Vienna 
continues,  and  even  the  last  rampart,  that  of  tongue,  is 
bound  to  fall  at  last,  despite  all  the  desperate  efforts  to 
ward  this  off  made  by  the  Viennese  of  old  stock  who 
feel  hurt,  humiliated  by  all  this.  Already  the  Czechs  in 
Vienna  have  succeeded,  notwithstanding  municipal  legis- 
lation framed  ad  Jioc,  in  enforcing  instruction  in  Czech 
in  a  number  of  schools  situated  in  strongly  Czech 
quarters,  and  are  further  extending  their  victory  under 
the  constitutional  liberties  of  the  empire.  And  how 
quickly  a  city  may,  under  otherwise  favouring  circum- 
stances, change  its  racial  and  general  aspects,  there  is 
no  better  illustration  for  than  Prague,  capital  of 
Bohemia,  and  Budapest,  the  Hungarian  capital.  For 
Prague  sixty  years  ago  was  predominantly  a  German 
city  in  all  its  leading  features.  To-day  it  is  an  intensely 
Czech  city,  with  the  German  element  reduced  down  to 
about  ten  per  cent,  of  the  whole.  All  the  result  of  a 
systematic  Czechicising  propaganda  and  a  campaign 
waged  with  unexampled  zeal.    The  same  is  true  of  Buda- 


52    AUSTEIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

pest.  In  1867  it  was  overwhelmingly  Teutonic  in  lan- 
guage, character,  and  everything  else.  To-day  things  are 
exactly  reversed;  again  caused  by  the  same  means.  And 
curiously  enough  this  has  been  done  in  face  of  the  weighty 
fact  that  the  language  there  displacing  another,  displac- 
ing one  to  possess  which  was  in  all  material  and  in- 
tellectual respects  of  far  greater  value,  was  one  of  small 
circulation  and  intrinsically  not  alone  extremely  difi&cult 
to  master  but  also  of  slight  use  outside  of  the  narrow 
bounds  where  it  dominates.  But  the  potent  spirit  of 
racial  pride,  of  racial  fanaticism,  so  to  speak,  easily  ex- 
plains the  phenomenon. 

We  have,  then,  the  unmistakable  fact  to  consider  that 
the  aboriginal  character  of  the  various  populations  of 
Austria-Hungary  has  been  conserved  through  long 
stretches  of  time,  in  the  face  of  all  discouragement  and 
of  all  material  disadvantages  which  such  conservation 
often  meant.  Indeed,  it  is  one  of  the  most  interesting 
chapters  in  the  life  book  of  the  Dual  Monarchy  to  observe 
just  this  fact — the  unabridged  and  unimpaired  racial 
character  of  the  populations  not  belonging  to  the  once 
dominant  element.  For  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that, 
with  the  single  exception  of  the  Kingdom  of  Hungary, 
the  elements  thus  recovering  from  their  period  of  more 
or  less  oppression  are  composed  entirely  of  fragments 
of  races,  not  of  entire  races,  of  fragments  of  races  that 
some  of  them,  it  is  true,  once  had  formed  and  maintained 
for  a  time  large  and  powerful  political  entities,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Czechs,  of  the  Moravians,  the  Serbs  and 
Croatians,  the  Slovaks  and  the  Rumanians,  or  that  had 
even  lacked  the  political  sagacity  and  energy  to  accom- 
plish that  much,  as  may  be  said  of  the  Slovenes,  the 
Ladiners,  the  men  of  Italian  stock  in  the  south  of  Tyrol, 
in  Istria  and  on  the  Adriatic  shore.    Some  of  these  even 


UNIQUE  FEATURES  OF  PART  OF  PROCESS    53 

had  apparently  buried  all  hope  or  desire  of  keeping  their 
native  tongue  intact.    This  is  true  of  the  Slovenes,  whose 
idiom  is  about  the  least  plastic  and  the  least  cultivated  of 
all  the  Slavic  ones.    It  is  only  during  the  last  thirty  years 
that  they  once  more,  if  I  may  use  such  a  term,  dug  it  out 
and  began  to  try  and  make  the  most  of  it.     They  have 
succeeded  remarkably  well,  and  Slovene  is  now  not  alone 
a  literary  medium,  but  even  a  scientific  one.    It  is  similar 
in  the  case  of  Czech,  though  that  at  least  could  look  back 
upon  a  time  when  it  was  in  the  heyday  of  its  glory ;  when 
as  early  as  the  15th  century,  in  the  time  of  Huss,  it  was 
developed  enough  to  serve  as  a  vehicle  for  a  translation  of 
the  gospels  and  for  the  composition  of  church  hymns 
and  of  a  whole  liturgy.    But  Czech  also  vanished  for  a 
long  time  from  all  public  and  literary  use,  and  it  was  only 
revived  two  generations  ago.    Even  with  Magyar  the  case 
was  similar.    Intensely  proud  and  self-contained  as  this 
race  is,  for  centuries  only  Latin  was  used  in  the  political 
life  and  for  all  public  documents,  even  in  the  courts,  of 
Hungary.     And  not  until  about  1830  was  a  beginning 
made  to  employ  this  strange  idiom  in  the  national  parlia- 
ment and  for  all  other  public  purposes.    Strange  idiom, 
I  call  it ;  for  the  Magyar  language,  rich  and  capable  of 
the  finest  shades  of  expression,  has  no  affinity  with  other 
languages  spoken  in  Europe.     It  belongs  to  the  Ural- 
Altaic  stock,  is  agglutinous  and  very  hard  to  learn,  though 
quite  sonorous  and  yet  virile  in  sound.    Had  the  Habs- 
burgs  had  the  wisdom  to  consolidate  all  these  hetero- 
geneous elements  living  under  their  sway — and  for  whom 
the  dynasty  meant  in  the  main  the  one  single  link  of 
connection — by  a  mild  yet  persistent  course  of  suasion, 
all  might  have  gone  well  in  the  end.    For  the  dynasty 
itself,  strange  as  that  may  appear  on  several  accounts, 
their  ''peoples"  had  ever  shown  something  akin  to  af- 


54    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE   ': 

f  ection.  And  indeed,  without  that  one  motive  of  devotion 
to  the  house  that  had  ruled  them  for  centuries,  it  is  hard 
to  conceive  what  could  have  held  this  conglomerate, 
unique  in  this  respect,  together  at  all.  It  is  hard  to  say 
what  else  could  hold  it  together  even  to-day.  And  for 
long  periods  the  Habsburgs  had  this  opportunity  of 
''peaceful  fusion."  But  while  the  Habsburg  internal 
policy,  up  to  1867,  had  always  been  that  of  centralisation, 
no  attempt  was  made  at  welding  the  different  elements 
into  an  indestructible  whole.  The  centralisation  aimed  at 
was  merely  an  outward  one — uniformity  of  administra- 
tion; the  compulsory  use  of  German  as  the  language  in 
courts,  in  the  army,  on  all  public  occasions ;  a  crudely  lev- 
elling process,  in  short.  But  not  one  to  blend  the  various 
parts,  not  one  which  would  have  made  each  feel  a  pride  in 
the  country  as  a  whole,  to  foster  intelligent  patriotism  and 
mutual  forbearance,  mutual  recognition  of  each  other's 
rights  and  ideals.  Of  course,  the  latter  task  was  infinitely 
the  harder  one  of  the  two.  It  would  have  called  for  an 
amount  of  psychological  insight  that  we  look  for  in  vain 
amongst  rulers  of  the  past.  Not  even  the  great  reformer, 
Joseph  II,  brilliant  man  though  he  otherwise  may  be 
called,  was  equal  to  such  a  mission.  He,  too,  only  adopted 
mechanical  methods  to  transform  his  great  monarchy 
spiritually  into  a  unit.  In  fact,  well-meaning  as  undoubt- 
edly he  was,  his  was  not  the  patience  required  for  it. 
Besides,  his  reign  did  not  last  long  enough,  and  he  was 
superseded  by  an  intellectual  nonentity  who  speedily 
undid  the  little  his  predecessor  had  accomplished. 

Anyway,  it  is  only  with  the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth 
century  and  with  the  coming  of  Napoleon  I  that  the 
modern  nations  of  Europe,  so  to  speak,  ''found"  them- 
selves, i.e.,  became  really  conscious  of  their  national 
selves.    Napoleon,  unshackled  and  unconventional  genius 


UNIQUE  FEATURES  OF  PART  OF  PROCESS     55 

and  upstart  as  he  was,  whom  the  wave  of  the  great  Revo- 
lution had  borne  upward  on  its  crest,  was  the  first  to 
throw  the  firebrand  of  race  and  nation  strife  into  the 
stagnant  pool  of  European  politics.  And  while  he  cav- 
alierly threw  about  large  lumps  of  territory,  creating  this 
or  that  one  of  his  lucky  marshals  king  or  duke  or  despot 
of  any  of  them,  one  notices  beneath  all  that  surface  chaos 
the  glimmering  idea  of  national  aspirations,  of  national 
uplift  and  rebirth.  The  idea  is  plainly  perceptible  in  his 
rough  dealings  both  in  Italy  and  Geraiany,  but  also  in 
Austria.  His  carving  out  the  '^Ulyrian"  Kingdom,  for 
example,  was  a  master  stroke  in  its  way.  It  lasted  but  a 
few  years,  that  kingdom;  but  even  to-day  the  people  of 
Dalmatia  and  Istria  think  and  talk  of  it  with  some  regret. 
This  Napoleonic  idea  was  later  on  seized  by  his  nephew, 
Napoleon  III,  and  served  him  well.  It  was  a  power  on 
his  political  chessboard  which  he  conjured  with  to  a 
purpose  that  suited  him,  as  in  1859,  in  1866  and  again,  in 
his  scheme  of  annexing  Luxemburg,  in  1867. 

The  modern  conception  of  nationality,  as  a  unit  to 
which  all  those  speaking  the  same  tongue  and  professing 
the  same  ideals  owe  fealty,  as  one  which  by  its  mere 
geographical  existence  is  bound  to  draw  to  it  all  accre- 
tions formerly  lost  to  some  other  power  or  race,  this 
conception,  then,  dates  in  the  main  only  from  the  time 
of  Napoleon  III.  The  period  when  this  idea  became  the 
most  potent  ferment,  the  irresistible  force  in  the  political 
life  of  Europe,  was  ushered  in  by  the  revolution  of  1848, 
it  is  true.  But  even  then  it  was  not  clearly  defined,  but 
rather  was  amalgamated  with  other,  more  general  and 
altruistic,  but  not  so  vivid  ideals.  Its  full  fruition  be- 
came only  visible  since  1860  by  the  unification  of,  first 
Italy  and,  ten  years  later,  of  Germany. 

Had  the  Habsburgs,  therefore,  to  repeat  it,  utilised 


56    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

their  time  well,  they  would  have  had  ample  opportunities 
to  weld  all  the  scattered  fragments  making  up  their  em- 
pire into  a  practical  unit  before  the  disruptive  germ  of 
nationalism  had  been  able  to  infect  the  whole  inchoate 
mass.  But  they  did  not  do  so.  The  long  list  of  Habsburg 
rulers  does  not  show  us  one  single  man  who  could  be 
called  great,  not  one  who  was  able  and  willing  to  achieve 
great  ends  by  moral  means.  They  missed  their  turn,  and 
now  they  have  to  pay  the  penalty. 

Taking  a  bird's-eye  view  of  Austria-Hungary  of  to-day, 
the  truth  of  this  becomes  apparent  at  once.  Just  to  cite 
one  more  instance,  there  are  the  Latin  fragments  of  her 
population,  those  of  Italian  race  in  the  southern  section 
of  the  Tyrol  and  those  in  Istria,  the  Littorale  with 
Trieste,  and  in  the  rather  limited  coastal  districts  of 
Dalmatia.  These  point  admirably  the  lesson  which  is 
conveyed  in  the  foregoing.  For  all  these  Austrians  of 
Latin  stock  were  well  contented  with  their  political  lot 
until  after  the  successful  establishment  of  the  ^' Regno," 
the  Kingdom  of  Italy.  During  the  Napoleonic  era  the 
Italian-Tyrolese  section  was  among  the  most  loyal  even, 
fighting  the  French  invaders  with  nearly  the  same  fer- 
vour as  did  their  fellow  Tyrolese  of  Teuton  lineage  to  the 
north.  Trieste  was  indubitably  strongly  pro-Austrian 
until  quite  recent  years.  The  race  feeling  of  all  these 
people  had  gone  to  sleep.  Trieste  was,  materially  con- 
sidered, far  better  off  under  the  Austrian  ''yoke"  than 
it  could  possibly  be  under  the  Italian  rule  of  the  Regno, 
waxing  in  wealth  with  rapid  strides  and  enjoying  a  prac- 
tical monopoly  of  Adriatic  trade  for  the  whole  monarchy 
when  it  would  have  had  to  divide  honours  and  emolu- 
ments with  Venice  and  a  score  of  other  Italian  ports  once 
she  formed  part  of  Italy.  Again,  the  Ladiners.  These 
people  (of  whom  I  speak  more  in  detail  elsewhere)  are 


UNIQUE  FEATURES  OF  PART  OF  PROCESS    57 

even  to-clay  by  no  means  pro-Italian.  And  they  are  not 
of  Latin  stock  despite  their  name.  They  are,  in  fact,  of 
the  same  ancient  race  which,  under  the  appellation  of 
Romansch,  peoples  the  Swiss  canton  of  Grisons. 
Celts  they  are,  pure  Celts,  with  a  thin  varnish 
with  which  the  Romans,  during  their  age  of  world 
conquest,  overlaid  the  surface.  Their  tongue,  very 
different  from  Italian,  is  more  than  a  mere  dia- 
lect; it  is  a  literary  vehicle.  And  these  Ladiners  who, 
until  fifty  years  ago,  were  about  as  numerous  as  Aus- 
trians  of  Italian  descent,  and  who  live  mostly  in  agri- 
cultural enclaves,  in  all  those  districts  named  above,  side 
by  side  with  the  men  of  Italian  stock,  might  have  proved 
a  countervailing  element  as  against  the  latter.  To  do 
this  it  would  only  have  been  necessary  to  grant  them  the 
same  opportunities  and  the  same  privileges  which  the 
people  of  Italian  stock  enjoyed,  such  as  a  recognition  of 
their  idiom  for  public  uses,  equal  school  facilities,  to 
encourage  their  press,  their  literature,  to  appoint  a  fair 
quota  of  them  to  honours  and  offices,  to  promote  their 
trend  of  separate  race  existence;  to  give  them,  in  fact, 
merely  the  same  rights  which  they  have  in  the  Swiss 
canton  of  Grisons,  just  over  the  border.  But  the  Habs- 
burgs  did  none  of  these  things.  Quite  the  opposite.  The 
Italianissimi  in  the  Trentino  and  in  Istria,  rather,  were 
accorded  every  facility  to  conduct  a  strenuous  propa- 
ganda amongst  them,  to  deprive  them  of  the  means  of 
furthering  their  own  ideals,  of  publishing  volumes  of 
their  wonderful  folk  lore  and  folk  songs ;  in  a  word,  they 
were,  under  the  very  eyes  and  with  the  very  connivance 
of  the  blind  Austrian  government,  weened  away  from 
their  own  tongue  and  its  cult  and  within  a  couple  of 
generations  turned  into  Italians  to  all  interests  and  pur- 
poses.   At  least,  the  Italian  propaganda  here  referred  to 


58    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

(for  which  the  money  was  forthcoming,  year  after  year, 
from  appropriations  granted  specially  by  the  Italian  par- 
liament) has  actually  succeeded  in  thus  reducing  the  num- 
ber of  confessedly  Ladin  persons  to  about  one-half  of 
what  they  were  in  1870.  Surrounded  on  all  sides  by 
people  of  Italian  stock  and  denied  the  chance  of  being 
taught  their  own  idiom  at  school,  this  is  not  astonishing. 
But  the  degree  of  Austrian  myopia  which  brought  about 
this  result  is  certainly  astonishing. 

I  have  here  briefly  mentioned  the  case  of  the  Ladiners 
as  it  is  strongly  to  the  point.  But  it  is  not  the  only  one  of 
the  kind  in  this  singular  jumble  of  races  and  racial 
driblets  in  Austria-Hungary  that  might  be  spoken  of. 
The  fact  is  that  under  the  white  heat  of  nationahstio 
frenzy,  under  the  gospel  of  demanding  full  elbow  room 
for  every  f ragTuent  of  a  race,  the  rule  of  the  stronger  has 
been  practised  in  Austria-Hungary  during  the  past  fifty 
years  with  a  ruthlessness  unknown  elsewhere.  Each 
'^ submerged"  minority  is  again,  if  opportunity  serves, 
submerging  other  minorities.  The  case  of  the  Poles  and 
of  the  Ruthenians  in  Galicia  shows  that  clearly.  The 
oppressed  turns  oppressor  when  he  may.  What  has 
happened  in  the  southern  ridge  of  Austria  to  the  Ladiners 
— an  interesting  fragment  come  down  to  us  from  the 
remote  past  but  only  numbering  now  some  300,000  to 
350,000 — happens  in  other  parts  of  the  Dual  Monarchy 
to  other  minorities  and  small  contingents,  and  Count 
Stephen  Tisza  in  his  speech  in  the  Hungarian  parliament 
not  long  ago  was  in  so  far  right  that  it  is  not  always  easy 
to  draw  hard  and  fast  lines  as  to  where  justice  and  mercy 
to  minorities  end  and  injustice  to  others  and  injury  to 
the  state  begin.  Certainly  the  course  of  the  Poles  against 
the  Ruthenians  in  Galicia  shows  that,  and  so  does  the 
treatment  accorded  the  Teutonic  minority  in  Bohemia 


UNIQUE  FEATURES  OF  PART  OF  PROCESS     59 

by  their  Czech  fellow-countrymen,  now  the  dominant  ele- 
ment there,  which  has  of  late  years  often  been  the  reverse 
of  considerate  and  equable.  But  without  going  here  any 
deeper  into  the  matter  this  much  seems  plain  to  the  stu- 
dent of  the  internal  conditions  of  Austria-Hungary,  that 
the  dynasty,  the  ruling  house  of  Habsburg,  is  primarily 
to  blame  for  it  if  at  this  writing  the  race  problem  there 
forms  such  an  ahnost  inextricable  network  of  riddles. 


CHAPTER  IV 

EACIAL   PROBLEM    OUTLINED 

A  query  by  Col.  Theodore  Roosevelt — Universal  misconception  of  the 
problem  outside  Austria-Hungary — In  some  of  its  features  it  is 
unique — Repression  and  centralisation  tried  for  centuries,  and 
found  not  to  answer — On  the  whole  racial  traits  presei-ved  intact — 
This  fact  if  wisely  utilised  ought  to  yield  the  Dual  Monarchy  sev- 
eral gi'eat  advantages  in  international  rivalry — Diversity  as  a  source 
of  strength — Lesson  of  this  war  in  this  respect — Unfortunately 
racial  animosities  swamp  all  other  considerations — Austrian  and 
Hungarian  paper  money  an  unflattering  portrait  of  the  country — 
Twenty  races  under  one  rule — Some  characteristics — Dumb  and 
submerged  elements  of  poi^ulation — It  would  be  the  life  task  of  a 
great  statesman  to  bring  about  reconciliation — But  it  is  an  almost 
superhuman  one — A  world  areopagus  could  never  solve  the  ques- 
tion— Is  a  solution  at  all  feasible? 

During  the  presidential  campaign  of  1912  the  present 
writer  had  a  conversation  with  Col.  Theodore  Roosevelt 
on  political  matters,  and  in  the  course  of  it — the  scene 
being  St.  Paul,  Minn.,  which  contains  a  very  large  ad- 
mixture of  Austrians  and  Hungarians  in  its  population 
— the  fact  was  mentioned  that  these  alien-born  elements 
mingled  quite  readily  with  American  public  life;  that 
they,  in  fact,  in  the  gross  made  good  citizens  and  assimi- 
lated within  a  relatively  short  time  completely  with  their 
surroundings.  Col.  Roosevelt,  always  interested  in  topics 
of  that  kind,  expressed  great  satisfaction  at  this,  but 
added,  as  an  afterthought :  *  'It  beats  me  why  those  people 
cannot  get  on  together  at  home.    They  seem  to  be  for- 

60 


EACIAL  PROBLEM  OUTLINED  61 

ever  at  loggerheads.  Somehow  our  American  theorem  of 
the  *  Melting  Pot'  does  not  seem  to  work  out  there.  I 
wonder  why?  One  would  think  that  it  must  be  much  more 
easy  for  them  to  amalgamate  into  a  fairly  homogeneous 
whole  at  home,  where  they  are  confronted  by  conditions 
to  which  they  are  inured,  than  here  where  everything  at 
first  must  seem  strange  to  them.  Yet  they  do  not  appear 
to  make  any  headway  in  this  respect  in  Austria-Hungary, 
The  cable  tells  us  of  nothing  but  discord.'* 

That,  I  take  it,  would  be  about  the  gist  of  what  a  multi- 
tude of  intelligent  Americans  that  have  given  the  subject 
any  thought  at  all,  have  to  say  on  Austria-Hungary's 
gravest  problem,  the  problem  of  racial  affinity  and 
antipathy. 

Indeed  outside  Austria-Hungary  there  prevails  uni- 
versal misconception  of  the  whole  matter.  Nor  is  this, 
truth  to  tell,  confined  to  foreign  observers.  Even  among 
the  native-born  within  the  monarchy  there  is  a  very  gen- 
eral blurring  of  the  issues.  The  whole  question  bristles 
with  difficulties.  It  is  not  alone  involved  and  complicated, 
but  to  look  at  it  fairly,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  to  rid 
one's  mind  of  a  whole  row  of  preconceptions  and  acquired 
errors  of  judgment.  In  a  word,  above  all  it  is  indispen- 
sable to  approach  the  theme  with  impartiality.  In  some 
of  its  features  it  is  unique.  Not  in  the  sense  that  race 
problems  do  not  exist  elsewhere  to  make  the  path  of 
governments,  of  diplomat  or  statesman  thorny.  That,  of 
course,  is  not  the  case.  In  the  number  of  subject  races, 
for  example,  Russia  with  her  128  separate  and  distinct 
tribes,  types,  races,  hordes  and  nomadic  aggregations  of 
indigenous  folk  presents  immeasurably  greater  difficulties 
if  the  intention  or  even  the  possibility  existed  there  of 
merging  all  those  inchoate  masses — ^many  of  them 
pagans,  fetish  worshippers  on  the  lowest  plane — into  a 


62    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

somewhat  uniform  whole.  But  conditions  in  the  immense 
Russian  empire  present  hardly  any  parallel  with  Austro- 
Hungarian  ones,  as  the  merest  glance  shows.  And  so 
elsewhere. 

To  begin  with,  it  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  this  Austro- 
Hungarian  monarchy,  limited  in  size  when  compared  with 
such  political  entities  as  Russia,  the  United  States  or  the 
British  world  empire,  harbors  within  narrow  compass 
some  twenty  races  or  fragments  of  races  and  national- 
ities. These  twenty  are :  Poles,  Magyars,  Germans,  Ital- 
ians, Slovaks,  Hanakas,  Ruthenians,  Ladiners,  Ruma- 
nians, Jews,  Armenians,  Gypsies,  Serbs,  Croatians, 
Bosnians,  Turks,  Czechs,  Moravians,  Lithuanians,  and 
Slovenes.  In  Austria  eight  of  the  idioms  spoken  by  these 
people  of  many  creeds  and  races  are  recognised  as 
" Lcmdesspraclien"  (languages  of  the  country),  or 
'^Verkehrssprachen"  (languages  of  intercourse),  and  it 
is  about  as  striking  a  portrait  of  this  polyglot  collection 
which  masquerades  under  the  name  of  a  "Nationalitaten- 
Staat,"  i.e.,  a  '^nationalities'  state,"  to  be  found  when 
one  gets  hold  of  an  Austrian  bill  of  paper  money.  There, 
on  the  body  of  the  bill  and  around  the  margins  the  de- 
nomination, the  meaning  of  the  bill,  the  penalty  for  coun- 
terfeiting it  and  all  the  other  things  a  paternal  govern- 
ment deems  it  requisite  to  let  its  lieges  know  is  printed 
in  multi-coloured  ink,  for  the  wary  to  beware.  Over  in 
Hungary  it  is  not  quite  so  bad.  There  some  four  tongues 
are  considered  enough  to  convey  the  meaning  of  the  text. 
Yet  all  this  does  not  constitute  the  main  difficulty.  There 
is,  for  instance,  one  feature  wrapped  up  in  this  race 
problem  in  Austria-Hungary  of  which  little  mention  is 
made  as  a  rule,  and  yet  which  complicates  it  immensely. 

For  while  it  is  true  that,  speaking  in  a  general  way, 
the  leading  (or  more  populous)  nationalities  are  grouped 


EACIAL  PROBLEM  OUTLINED  63 

on  fairly  compact  and  contiguous  territory,  tliis  is  by  no 
means  the  case  throughout.  Just  to  ilhistrate  this  let  me 
cite  some  facts  from  the  last  census.  These  show,  then, 
that  in  Bohemia  and  Moravia,  for  example,  there  are  sev- 
eral hundred  villages  partly  Slav,  partly  Teuton.  In  some 
cases  the  latter,  in  others  the  former,  make  up  the  ma- 
jority. Again,  there  are  so-called  "enclosures"  or  "en- 
claves," i.e.,  districts  small  or  large  inhabited  by  one 
race,  while  the  whole  surrounding  country  is  peopled  by 
another.  Then,  as  in  Transylvania,  the  landowners  are 
Magyars,  the  peasants  Rumanian.  This  intermingling  is 
often  inextricable,  as  time  and  circumstances  have  shaped 
it.  There  are  many  towns  of  considerable  size  within  the 
borders  of  the  realm  where  one-half  the  people  belong  to 
the  dominant  race,  the  other  made  up  of  those  grouped 
with  the  minorities ;  and  vice  versa.  These  cases  in  their 
totality  concern  probably  a  couple  of  millions  of  the 
population  of  Austria-Hungary,  for  what  is  true  of  Bo- 
hemia and  Moravia  is  likewise  true  in  varying  degree  of 
all  other  provinces.  Manifestly  such  conditions  render 
the  terrorising,  the  more  or  less  forcible  denationalising 
of  such  practically  powerless  minorities  very  probable. 
The  complaints,  too,  growing  out  of  such  peculiar  cases, 
have  always  been  most  difficult  to  adjust.  Often  small 
occurrences  which  took  their  rise  at  national  festivals 
celebrated  purposely  in  the  stronghold  of  another  "na- 
tion," insignificant  in  themselves,  perhaps  due  to  a  blus- 
tering spirit  of  bravado,  have  been  magnified  by  the  press 
of  the  various  "nationalities,"  until  a  wave  of  anger  has 
swept  over  the  whole  province  and  beyond.  If  it  were 
possible  in  these  days  of  railroad  and  telephone  and 
printer's  ink  to  isolate  such  neighbourhoods  and  to  let 
calmness  and  common  sense  reassert  themselves,  not  one- 
half  the  amount  of  race  hatred  would  be  expended  in 


64    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

Austria-Hungary.  It  is  publicity,  the  close  proximity, 
the  inextricable  intermingling  of  warring  factions  and 
disputing  races  that  have  made  much  of  the  mischief. 
Anri  these  interminable  squabbles  and  rows  and  fisticuff 
encounters  between  the  different  races,  especially  on  holi- 
days, during  large  athletic  excursions  and  popular  meet- 
ings, during  political  campaigns  and  on  election  days, 
have  naturally  increased  in  frequency  and  acrimonious- 
ness  as  railroads,  steamboats  and  other  means  of  com- 
munication became  more  common  and  made  such  hostile 
clashings  more  frequent. 

Now  part  of  the  Habsburg  policy  has  been  for  centuries 
to  let  all  this  hodge-podge  of  small  races  and  racial  frag- 
ments coalesce  into  one  huge  mass,  alike  devoid  of  char- 
acter and  of  individual  traits.  This  was  their  policy  of 
centralisation.  In  remoter  ages  they  did  not  meet  with 
much  resistance  on  this  score,  for  the  very  sentiment  of 
nationality — race  consciousness — is  not  very  old.  Indeed 
in  their  Avarfare  in  favour  of  uniformity  the  Habsburg 
rulers  in  most  cases  were  firmly  opposed  only  where 
tangible  political  or  economic  interests  or  privileges  were 
at  stake.  The  Empress  Maria  Theresa,  with  a  woman's 
innate  tact,  knew  how  to  wheedle  and  cajole  the  Mag- 
yars, by  far  politically  the  most  advanced  and  determined 
of  her  motley  array  of  subjects,  out  of  a  number  of  their 
cherished  political  rights  and  pledged  prerogatives.  Her 
son,  Joseph  II,  likewise  pursuing  the  same  policy  of  cen- 
tralisation {i.e.,  Germanisation  in  reality),  went  about 
it  in  greater  haste  and  with  much  less  success.  The  up- 
shot of  it  all  was  that  after  a  policy  of  this  description 
more  or  less  consistently  followed  for  about  250  years,  its 
complete  failure  had  to  be  admitted.  And  from  1867  on, 
dating  from  the  Ausgleich  with  Hungary,  this  policy  as 
a  system  of  government  had  to  be  dropped.    Indeed  it 


EACIAL  PROBLEM  OUTLINED  65 

has  been  superseded  by  the  reverse;  at  first  rather  un- 
consciously, as  a  result  of  sundry  crises,  but  after  a  while 
as  part  of  a  settled  system.  But  it  has  never  gone  farther 
than  halfway.  The  policy  of  centralisation  had  not  been 
found  to  answer.  Its  non-success  became  so  glaringly 
evident  during  the  war  of  1866,  when  Austria  had  indeed 
come  to  the  lowest  ebb  and  seemed  on  the  brink  of  dis- 
solution, that  from  that  hour  on  even  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph,  obstinate  and  self-willed  as  he  had  proven  him- 
self to  be,  shelved  the  very  idea  for  good  and  all.  No 
statesman  of  either  Austria  or  Hungary  has  ever  dreamt 
of  reviving  it,  although  there  have  been  at  times  strong 
currents  of  public  opinion  favouring  its  revival. 

Very  astonishing  on  the  whole  is  the  fact,  however, 
that  after  such  a  long  period  of  stern  repression  racial 
traits  in  Austria-Hungary  have  remained  virtually  intact. 
Slavs,  Magyars,  Germans,  even  such  a  '*  submerged"  race 
as  the  Rumanian, — each  stand  out  clear  and  distinct,  with 
their  peculiar  virtues  and  foibles.  This,  of  course,  must 
not  be  taken  too  literally.  Modifications  there  have  been 
wrought  by  the  centuries.  The  Czechs  of  to-day,  for  ex- 
ample, are  not  the  Czechs  of  1618;  they  have  learnt  a 
great  deal  from  their  foes,  the  surrounding  Teutons.  So 
have  the  Teutonic  Austrians  themselves,  mixed  stock  as 
they  are,  been  moulded  into  something  different  when 
compared  with  what  they  were  in  the  Middle  Ages.  And 
as  for  the  Magyars,  there  is  no  doubt  they  have  under  the 
stress  of  national  troubles  developed  a  sense  of  per- 
spective, a  measure  of  moderation  and  conciliation  which 
formerly  they  were  strangers  to.  The  Jews,  too,  with 
all  the  adaptability  of  that  wonderfully  vital  race,  have 
greatly  changed  in  the  Austria-Hungary  of  to-day.  In 
both  halves  they  have  become  good  patriots,  have  enor- 
mously gained  in  wealth  and  standing.    Solely  in  Galicia 


66    AUSTEIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

— where  adverse  circumstances  have  hampered  them — 
they  have  sunk,  as  to  the  great  body  of  them  at  least, 
deeper  and  deeper  into  the  mire  of  squalor,  bigotry  and 
sordid  greed.  Another  exotic  fragment  (although  with  its 
120,000  forming  but  the  twentieth  part  of  the  number  of 
Hebrews  dwelling  within  Austria-Hungary),  the  Hun- 
garian gypsies,  have  also  yielded  to  the  force  of  cir- 
cumstances, as  became  patent  in  the  course  of  tliis  war. 
True,  the  larger  portion  of  them  are  still  vagrants  and 
wanderers  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  But  many  thousands 
of  them  have  settled  down  to  useful  toil  in  the  village  or 
town,  and  the  males  among  them  of  military  age,  enough 
to  form  a  whole  army  corps,  were  enrolled  in  the  army 
and  have  fought  with  varying  fortunes  at  the  front.  In- 
deed the  stories  told  of  their  qualifications  as  fighters 
seem  to  dispel  in  a  measure  popular  ideas  as  to  the 
''middling"  bravery  of  the  gypsy.  Quite  a  number  of 
them  distinguished  themselves  and  obtained  military 
rank  and  decorations.  The  Bosnians,  too,  whom  I 
enumerated  separately  as  a  nationality,  because  of  spe- 
cial traits,  have  displayed  qualities  setting  them  apart 
from  their  near  kin,  the  Serbs.  Nor  is  this  astonishing, 
for  as  their  history  since  1356  shows,  they  in  their  major 
half  willingly  became  Moslems  (their  separate  creed,  that 
of  the  Bogomiles — a  sect  resembling  that  of  the  Al- 
bigenses  of  old  and  fiercely  persecuted  by  orthodox 
Christianity  as  heretics  of  the  deepest  dye — predisposing 
them  to  the  teachings  of  Islam),  and  as  Moslems  they 
have  fraternised  with  the  Turks  and  have  betrayed  a 
fatalism  truly  Turkish  throughout  this  war.  And  while 
this  war  itself  took  its  geographical  rise  in  the  pretty, 
mosque-dotted  capital  of  Bosnia,  in  Sarayevo,  they  them- 
selves, fighting  sturdily  in  the  Austrian  ranks  as  soldiers 
(big,  brawny,  fez-covered  fellows  they  are,  too),  have 


EACIAL  PEOBLEM  OUTLINED  67 

done  so  with  perfect  impartiality,  whether  the  enemy  was 
Russian  or  Serb.  The  idiom,  too,  the  Bosnians  and 
Hercegovinians  speak,  while  Serbian  originally,  is  thickly 
interspersed  with  Turkish  words,  and  they  themselves,  in 
their  manners  and  their  whole  mode  of  life,  whether  Mos- 
lems or  Christians,  are  deeply  tinged  with  Orientalism. 

On  the  whole,  however,  the  various  nationalities  and 
races  composing  the  Austria-Hungary  of  to-day  are 
still  substantially  their  old  selves.  Thus  a  great  diversity 
of  racial  gifts  is  presented  to  the  beholder.  And  this,  if 
wisely  used,  might  make  for  the  future  greatness,  as  a 
factor  in  contemporaneous  civilisation,  of  this  composite 
nation.  If  each  of  these  races  were  but  unstintingly  to 
contribute  its  best  to  the  world — the  Magyar  his  elo- 
quence, his  political  tact  and  skill  of  administration,  his 
poetical  and  dramatic  fire  and  vigour,  his  sturdy  love  of 
independence;  the  Teuton  those  sterling  qualities  with 
which  the  world  is  familiar;  the  Slav,  in  his  various 
branches,  his  artistic  gifts,  his  great  talent  for  music,  his 
psychological  insight,  his  skill  in  domestic  adornment, 
etc. — what  a  gain  that  would  be !  Much,  most  of  this  is  at 
present  hidden  from  view.  But  it  might,  under  more  fa- 
vouring conditions,  all  see  the  light.  What  could  an  em- 
pire embodying — in  its  crude  state  mostly  as  yet — all 
those  racial  endowments  within  one  frame,  so  to  speak, 
what  could  such  an  empire  not  offer  to  the  world  within 
the  near  future! 

And  among  the  things  this  war  has  demonstrated  to  a 
reluctant  world — reluctant,  I  mean,  in  the  sense  of  being 
but  half  willing  to  credit  so  retrograde  a  country  with  un- 
looked-for achievements — there  has  been  just  such  an 
illustration  of  what  I  hinted  at  above.  For  the  old  Arch- 
duke Frederick,  while  anything  rather  than  a  great 
soldier,  at  least  admirably  understood  how  to  utilise  the 


68    AUSTEIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

different  races  in  their  fighting  proclivities.  He  made 
splendid  use  of  the  dash  and  indomitable  pluck  of  the 
Magyar;  of  the  stubborn  endurance  of  the  Slav;  of  the 
sturdy  valour  of  the  Teuton.  This  he  showed  at  every 
front — against  the  Russians,  the  Serbs,  the  Italians,  and 
everywhere  his  discrimination  was  of  the  utmost  value. 
Again,  next  to  Germany  herself,  the  Teuton  element  in 
Austria  did  much  to  neutralise  the  effects  of  the  British 
blockade  by  scientific  discoveries  and  inventions  provid- 
ing substitutes  for  greatly  needed  necessaries  in  warfare, 
such  as  rubber,  cotton,  copper,  etc. 

However,  true  as  this  is,  it  is  just  as  true  that  even 
with  the  Dual  Monarchy  struggling  in  a  death  grasp,  race 
strife  has  not  ceased  within  its  borders.  I  recall  that 
several  times,  right  in  the  midst  of  the  war,  even  when 
news  of  terrific  defeat  had  stirred  the  people,  reports 
were  published  of  such  race  collisions.  They  took  place, 
in  1914  and  1915,  in  Prague  and  other  Bohemian  towns, 
where  the  students  of  the  two  national  universities  at  one 
time  had  a  regular  battle,  lasting  for  several  days.  The 
cause  of  it  given  was  that  the  Teutonic  students  had 
charged  the  Czech  students  with  treasonable  practices 
and  aims.  A  Croat  battalion  had  to  be  sent  for  at  last 
(the  local  police  force  proving  powerless  to  check  the 
fighting)  from. a  distance  to  re-establish  order.  Similar 
disturbances,  though  not  on  as  large  a  scale,  occurred 
elsewhere — in  Laibach,  late  in  1914;  in  Agram,  in  1915, 
and  in  Vienna  itself  on  repeated  occasions.  Socialistic 
motives  mingling  with  patriotic  ones. 

With  some  justice  one  may  speak  in  Austria-Hungary 
of  dumb  and  submerged  races,  or  fragments  of  races. 
One  of  these  doubtless  are  the  Ruthenians,  or  Ukrain- 
ians. These  form  part  of  that  wing  of  Russian  people 
denominated  in  Russia  mostly  "Little  Russians,"  other- 


RACIAL  PROBLEM  OUTLINED  69 

wise  known  as  Ukrainians  and  numbering  altogether 
some  thirty-five  millions.  They  are  really  a  fine  race, 
mentally  superior  to  the  Great  Russians,  or  Muscovites, 
and  speaking  a  tongue  which,  while  cognate  to  Russian 
proper,  forms  a  distinct  and  separate  unit.  It  has  quite 
a  literature  of  its  own.  Its  greatest  poet,  Chevchenko, 
like  so  many  others  of  Russia's  choicest  spirits,  died  a 
martyr  to  the  cause  of  his  people,  ending  his  days  in  the 
Fortress  of  Sts.  Peter  and  Paul.  I  will  not  go  into  the 
subject  of  the  history  of  this  most  interesting  branch  of 
the  great  Slav  family,  fascinating  and  tempting  as  that 
would  be.  But  we  have  here  only  to  deal  with  that  small 
section  of  the  Ukrainian  race  which  fell  to  Austria's 
share  with  Galicia  in  the  time  of  Maria  Theresa.  Some 
three  millions  of  them  dwell  in  the  eastern  half  of  Galicia, 
while  another  half  million  was  apportioned  to  Hungary's 
share,  in  the  northeastern  counties  of  it.  This  whole  race 
has  fared  ill.  In  Russia  the  Czarish  government  for  a 
hundred  years  past  has  even  done  its  worst  to  stamp  out 
the  genius  of  this  people  entirely.  In  Austria  their  lot 
has  not  been  quite  so  unhappy.  But  when  the  deal  was 
made  between  the  dominant  race  in  Galicia,  the  Poles, 
and  the  Austrian  government,  which  was  done  soon  after 
the  Ausgleich  with  Hungary,  in  1867,  by  which  the  Poles 
pledged  the  new  constitutional  and  parliamentary  regime 
in  Austria  their  support  in  exchange  for  being  given 
practical  autonomy  in  Galicia  and  a  free  hand  to  settle 
their  provincial  political  affairs  to  suit  themselves,  the 
poor  Ruthenians  (as  they  are  mostly  termed  in  Austria) 
or  Ukrainians  were  made  the  scapegoat.  From  one- 
time oppressed  the  Poles  turned  themselves  oppressors. 
By  reason  of  great  wealth  (the  Poles  being  owners  of 
most  of  the  soil)  and  better  opportunities,  the  Ruthe- 
nians were  practically  enslaved  by  the  Poles.    The  latter 


70    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

have  an  ancient  historical  grudge  against  the  Ruthe- 
nians  and  this  fact  together  with  the  difference  in  creed 
(the  Ruthenians  belonging  to  the  orthodox  church)  has 
made  the  Poles  ruthless  masters.  To  all  intents  and 
purposes  the  Ruthenians  are  disfranchised,  robbed  of  all 
chance  to  rise  and  cut  off  from  every  humble  lane  that 
might  lead  to  prosperity.  In  short,  since  1868  they  have 
been  the  helots  of  the  Poles  in  Galicia.  In  the  provin- 
cial diet  as  well  as  in  the  Galician  delegation  to  the 
Reichsrat  in  Vienna  the  Ruthenians,  although  number- 
ing nearly  as  many  as  the  Poles,  have  been  represented 
by  a  mere  handful  of  members,  outvoted,  browbeaten, 
kept  in  direst  poverty.  The  large  emigration  from 
Galicia  comes  almost  exclusively  from  the  Ruthenian 
ranks.  A  few  years  ago  the  Polish  governor  of  Galicia, 
a  tyrant  particularly  obnoxious  to  the  Ruthenians,  was 
assassinated  by  a  Ruthenian  student.  The  latter,  es- 
caping from  jail,  is  now  a  fugitive  in  this  country.  His 
deed,  however,  led  to  no  results  beneficial  to  the  Ruthe- 
nian cause.  Up  to  this  hour  the  Ruthenians  of  Galicia 
are  still  what  they  have  been  so  long — a  dumb  and  sub- 
merged race. 

One  other  feature  in  this  stubborn  race  problem  is 
still  left  for  me  to  point  out.  It  is  significant  that  the 
clever  manipulator  who  devised  the  Ausgleich  in  1867, 
and  who,  therefore,  was  really  the  creator  of  the  Dual 
Monarchy  as  such,  namely.  Count  Beust,  was  not  a  native 
but  a  Saxon.  He  had,  it  is  true,  achieved  considerable 
fame  as  the  all-powerful  premier  of  that  tiny  kingdom 
of  Saxony  which  had  unfalteringly  been  the  steady  and 
self-sacrificing  friend  and  supporter  of  Austria,  a  friend- 
ship really  worthy  of  a  better  cause.  The  fame,  too, 
which  he  had  acquired  reached  far  beyond  the  narrow 
boundaries  of  Saxony,  and  even  of  Germany  and  Aus- 


RACIAL  PEOBLEM  OUTLINED  71 

tria.  Count  Beust  was  very  ambitious ;  a  man  of  original 
mind  and  of  great  fertility  of  resources.  Under  his  guid- 
ance the  Trias  formation  of  the  old  German  Confedera- 
tion had  made  considerable  headway.  He  venomously 
opposed  Bismarck  and  his  plans  of  ousting  Austria  and 
conferring  the  indisputable  hegemony  in  Germany  on 
Prussia.  His  scheme  had  been  to  group  the  German 
Confederation  in  three  factors,  each  of  approximately 
equal  powers  and  influence — Austria,  Prussia  and,  as  the 
third,  the  smaller  states:  Bavaria,  Saxony,  Wiirttem- 
berg,  Hanover,  etc.  Hence  he  had  baptised  his  plan  the 
Trias.  Yielding  to  his  strong  influence  Saxony,  in  1866, 
had  joined  Austria  in  her  war  with  Prussia.  Othello's 
occupation  was  gone  when  little  Saxony,  within  that 
Bhort  campaign  of  six  weeks — the  shortest  momentous 
war  in  history — lay  under  the  conqueror's  heel.  And 
thus  when  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  after  the  Peace 
of  Prague  looked  around  for  a  suitable  man  of  talent 
to  set  up  his  house  again  and  make  it  habitable,  his 
choice  fell  on  Beust.  All  that  and  more  Beust  himself 
tells  us  in  his  volume  of  personal  reminiscences,  together 
with  embellishing  anecdotes  and  deliciously  malicious 
storiettes.  But  one  thing,  one  of  the  most  important, 
he  passes  over.  Namely,  the  fact  that  he  himself  was 
a  foreigner,  a  non-Austrian.  And  yet  it  is  hard  to  see 
how  any  one  to  the  manner  born,  how  an  Austrian  or 
Hungarian  could  have  hit  upon  and  then  carried  to  a 
successful  issue  this  novel  makeshift  of  an  Ausgleich  of 
1867.  Unburdened  with  the  traditions  and  historic 
claims,  with  the  racial  prejudices  and  predilections  that, 
perhaps,  unwittingly  but  none  the  less  surely  cling  to 
every  representative  of  any  one  group  or  race  within 
Austria-Hungary,  Beust  could  set  to  work  and  with  the 
impartiality  of  a  Minos,  of  a  severe  but  just  judge,  ap- 


72    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

portion  the  new  rights  and  duties.  He  succceeded  in 
his  delicate  and  difficult  task  largely  because  he  was  a 
foreigner,  a  non-Austrian,  one  to  whom  no  suspicion  of 
wilful  unfairness  could  reasonably  attach. 

And  that  is  the  trouble  now.  That  has  been  the 
trouble  ever  since  1871 — when  Beust,  after  the  brilliant 
success  of  Bismarck  in  the  war  of  1870-71  and  the  formal 
establishment  of  a  new  and  potent  German  Empire  no 
longer  persona  grata  at  the  court  of  Vienna,  had  been 
retired  and  sent  to  London  as  ambassador — ever  since 
the  reorganised  Austria-Hungary  has  been  unable  to  find 
another  Beust,  or  at  least  some  statesman  endowed  with 
the  same  gifts  and  with  the  same  attributes  of  frankly 
admitted  racial  detachment.  To  clean  the  Augean  stables 
of  Austria-Hungary  w^ould  require  more  than  a  modern 
Hercules.  It  would  require  a  man  of  genius,  one  of  the 
kind  which  only  see  the  light  once  in  a  century  and  which 
this  etfete,  apathetic  Austria-Hungary,  where  virile, 
fresh  and  independent  thought  has  been  tabooed  so  long, 
is  least  able  to  furnish.  To  each  man  called  to  preside 
over  the  Foreign  Office  at  the  Ballplatz  in  Vienna — for 
that  office  alone,  the  one  of  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs, 
is  in  this  strange  Dual  Monarchy  the  one  where  great 
things  still  seem  possible  of  accomplishment — ^be  he 
Teuton  or  Magyar,  Pole  or  Czech,  from  the  outset  fol- 
lowed the  fact  of  his  separate  nationality.  And  this  ren- 
dered it  instinctively  impossible  for  the  men  of  other, 
more  or  less  hostile,  races  to  give  the  new  man  their  full 
confidence.  That  in  the  last  analysis  explains  the  failure 
of  one  adroit  leading  statesman  after  the  other  in  the 
Austria-Hungary  of  to-day  to  find  the  sovereign  elixir  of 
race  conciliation.  His  best  efforts,  his  most  dexterous 
measures  were  shipwrecked  on  the  rock  of  racial  sus- 
picion. 


EACIAL  PROBLEM  OUTLINED  73 

Indeed  a  perfectly  smooth  solution  of  the  racial  prob- 
lem, one  which  would  leave  every  section  of  the  popula- 
tion wholly  contented,  seems  like  the  squaring  of  the 
circle — impossible.  If  the  young  emperor,  Carl,  should 
not  be  favoured  by  fate  to  the  extent  of  discovering  and 
securing  the  services  of  a  first-class  non-Austrian  states- 
man, it  is  well-nigh  out  of  the  question  that  his  path 
as  a  ruler  will  be  less  beset  with  thorns  than  was  that  of 
his  predecessor,  no  matter  how  much  tact  and  equity  he 
might  display.  Nor  is  it  at  all  to  be  expected  that  the 
remedy  advocated  by  thoughtful  and  humane  persons 
outside  of  Austria-Hungary  would  fare  better.  To  sub- 
mit this  knotty  question  to  an  Areopagus  the  members 
of  which  might  be  selected  from  the  wisest  and  most  fair- 
minded  of  their  kind,  whether  such  an  international  court 
of  arbitration  were  at  the  same  time  one  of  last  resort  or 
only  a  deliberative  body  whose  dictum  would  carry  with 
it  more  or  less  moral  weight,  would  leave  it  in  the  end 
about  where  they  found  it.  And  this  independent  of  the 
fact  that,  after  all,  each  one  of  the  members  of  such  an 
exalted  body  would  also  be  more  or  less  tinctured  with 
preconceived  ideas  and  affinities.  It  may  be  said,  there- 
fore, that  a  complete  unriddling  of  the  riddle  is  a  super- 
human piece  of  work. 


CHAPTER  V 

INHERENT  DIFFICULTIES  OP  IT 

Why  the  "Melting  Pot"  theory  does  not  apply  to  Austria-Hungary — 
All  these  races  claim  their  dwelling  place  as  their  home — They  are 
not  immigrants — Soil  held  for  a  thousand  years  and  over — Look 
upon  their  neighbours  as  intruders  and  foes — Added  to  this  is  deep- 
seated  racial  antipathy — The  closer  neighbours  the  more  frequent 
collisions — All  stiniggling  for  supremacy  in  their  home — Not  an 
unalloyed  e\al,  however — Bohemia  an  illustration  of  that — Friction 
breeds  not  only  hostility,  but  powerfully  reacts  on  the  whole  make- 
up of  each  race — Czechs  turned  from  purely  agriculturists  to  towns- 
people and  manufacturers — The  learned  professions  no  longer 
monopolised  by  the  Teutonic  element — The  Jews  displacing  them 
largely,  but  also  the  Slavs — Red  tape  and  officialism  complicating 
the  problem  still  further — A  dictum  of  Bismarck's — Anxious  Aus- 
trian and  Hungarian  mammas  toiling  in  behalf  of  their  offspring 
— A  second  circumlocution  office — The  ambition  of  the  average 
youth. 

The  things  laid  bare  in  the  foregoing  chapter  com- 
prise, however,  by  no  means  all  the  perplexing  features 
of  this  problem  of  racial  jealousy  and  virulence.  Here 
is,  for  instance,  the  main  reason  why  the  **  Melting  Pot" 
theory,  on  which  Col.  Roosevelt  descanted  to  me  in  1912, 
cannot  hold  true  in  Austria-Hungary.  All  these  rival- 
ling races,  envious  of  each  other  and  covetous  of  terri- 
tory and  everything  else  held  by  their  fellow-dwellers 
in  the  same  house,  are  not  immigrants,  such  as  they 
are  in  the  United  States.  They  call  this  bit  of  soil  on 
which  they  and  their  forefathers  have  lived  their  home, 

74 


INHERENT  DIFFICULTIES  OF  IT  75 

their  very  own.  And  with  good  reason,  too.  When  the 
Austrian  or  Hungarian— or  for  that  matter,  any  other 
immigrant  of  whatsoever  faith  or  blood — hinds  on  Amer- 
ican shores,  he  comes  as  an  uninvited  guest,  following 
the  bent  of  his  more  or  less  adventurous  mind;  to  im- 
prove his  material  condition  in  most  cases ;  to  live  free 
from  political  or  religious  persecution;  to  breathe  a 
freer  air  and  feel  a  man  amongst  men ;  to  secure  better 
opportunities  for  himself  and  his  children.  These  and 
other  similar  motives  have  drawn  him  from  across  the 
water,  these  in  part  or  wholly.  But  in  any  event  he 
finds  a  land  already  settled;  with  laws  to  protect  him, 
with  the  way  made  more  or  less  smooth  for  him  and  his. 
But  in  that  land  whence  he  came  and  which  he  calls  his 
home  it  was  quite  a  different  case.  That  land  was  a 
wilderness  when  first  his  ancestors  came  to  it.  Perhaps 
they  had  first  to  conquer  it,  take  it  by  force  and  hold  it 
by  force  against  all  comers.  Or  else  his  forbears  fled 
to  it  to  escape  the  sword  of  another,  a  mightier  and  more 
ruthless  tribe,  such  as  was  the  case  with  the  Slovenes, 
the  Moravians  and  others.  They  had  to  break  the 
ground,  often  in  almost  inaccessible  parts,  up  steep 
mountain  sides,  to  keep  out  of  the  way  of  the  destroyer. 
They  had  to  fell  the  trees  and  clear  the  forests  for  their 
crops.  Every  rood  of  the  soil  was  bought  with  the 
sweat  of  their  brow,  cost  them  in  blood  and  toil.  And 
the  time  when  their  sires  first  came  lay  in  the  remote 
past.  It  lay  so  far  back  that  often  the  approximate 
time  even  Is  shrouded  in  doubt  to  this  day.  It  is  only 
surmise,  for  example,  not  historical  certainty,  that  the 
Czechs  'are  the  descendants  of  the  Boii  (hence  sup- 
posedly the  name  of  the  country:  Bohemia),  who  settled 
in  that  fruitful  land  of  Bohemia  about  350  or  400  A.D. 
Of  the  Moravians  we  are  only  sure  that  along  about  the 


76    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

time  of  Charlemagne  and  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years 
later  they  had  already  founded  a  large  and  powerful 
federative  state,  which  under  Svatopluk  ruled  from  the 
Baltic  to  the  Black  Sea.  Even  of  the  early  history  of 
the  Poles,  Lithuanians  and  Ruthenians  we  do  not  know 
much,  further  than  that  it  was  stormy  and  full  of  vicissi- 
tudes. But  in  any  case  we  do  know  that  all  these  races 
and  peoples  who  are  now  gathered  within  the  Habsburg 
fold  were  early  comers,  dwelling  in  their  present  home- 
steads for  a  thousand  years  and  over.  Of  the  Teutonic 
Austrians  we  are  somewhat  better  informed,  since  their 
exploits — their  settlements,  migrations,  conquests — were 
linked  together  with  the  doings  of  Charlemagne,  about 
800  A.D.,  and  his  successors.  Even  they,  therefore,  in- 
vaders as  they  undeniably  were,  can  claim  possession  of 
their  homes  by  the  ''good  old  rule,"  reaching  back  to 
primordial  days  in  those  eastern  districts  of  semi-bar- 
barous Europe.  And  it  stands  to  reason  that  all  those 
so  curiously  jumbled  races  and  fragments  of  races,  rem- 
nants though  they  may  be  of  what  was  once  a  coherent 
state,  feel  at  home  on  this  soil  of  theirs  to  which  they 
have  afifixed  its  name,  and  that  they  do  not  intend  wil- 
lingly to  yield  it  up  to  any  intruder.  For  that  is  their 
frame  of  mind  about  it — they  regard  the  ''others"  as 
intruders,  as  foes.  The  "others"  are  their  near  neigh- 
bours, perhaps  their  "guests,"  in  which  case  the  original 
meaning  of  host — hostis,  the  stranger,  the  foreigner,  the 
enemy,  once  again  assumes  its  true  significance. 

And  psychologically  it  also  becomes  quite  plain  why 
there  can  be  no  question  under  these  circumstances  of 
these  masses  of  conflicting  denizens  accommodating 
themselves  to  each  other,  as  they  unquestionably  do  in 
this  country,  as  immigrants.  For  the  attitude  of  mind 
is  very  different.    Li  the  latter  case  they  come  to  make 


INHERENT  DIFFICULTIES  OF  IT  77 

their  way  among  those  who  have  preceded  them,  it  may 
be  by  decades  or  it  may  be  by  centuries,  come  modestly, 
quasi  as  petitioners  and  suppliants.     But  in  the  former 
case  they  sit  on  their  own  soil,  the  soil  of  their  fathers, 
which  their  sweat  and  their  ploughshares  have  made 
productive.     The  soil  may  now  even  be  barren — still  it 
is  theirs  and  not  the  strangers',  the  intruders'.     And 
pursuing  this  train  of  reasoning  a  bit  farther,  it  also  is 
easily  understood  how  it  comes  about  that  the  closer 
proximity  waxes  between  these  rival  races,  the  more 
intercourse  there  necessarily  has  to  be  between  them,  due 
to   economic   or   political   causes,   the   deeper   aversion 
grows.    The  proof  of  this  can  be   studied   in   Austria- 
Hungary  in  all  its  phases — nowhere  better.    Thus,  despite 
the  fact  that  the  Croatians  and  Southern  Slavs  have 
been  treated  none  too  tenderly  or  fairly  by  the  Habs- 
burgs  and  by  the  Teutonic  Germans  generally,  and  de- 
spite the  fact  that  the  proverbial  Habsburg  ingratitude 
went  so  far  in  the  recent  past  as  to  hand  these  Slavs 
back  to  the  rigid  rule  of  the  Hungarians  after  they  had 
helped  the  emperor  overcome  the  Magyar  rising  in  1849, 
nevertheless  these  same  Croatians  and  Southern  Slavs 
bear  the  Magyars  inveterate  hatred,  while  they  feel  but 
a  lukewarm  dislike  for  the  Teutons.     All  because  for  a 
thousand  years  back  they  had  the  Magyars  as  their  close 
neighbours  and  rivals,  while  the  others,  the  Teutons, 
were  an  avoidable  evil,  one  not  to  be  dreaded  by  reason 
of  distance.  Whereas  the  Czechs,  surrounded  on  all  sides 
by  populations  speaking  the  German  tongue,  from  whom 
they,  moreover,  had  picked  up  much  valuable  knowledge, 
largely  because  of  that  very  proximity  and  perhaps,  in 
part,  because  of  these  very  benefits  conferred,  hate  the 
Germans  like  poison,  and  most  of  all  the  Austrian  Ger- 


78    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

mans,  those  they  have  had  most  to  do  with  in  all  these 
centuries. 

Thus  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  this  case,  as  in 
many  analogous  ones,  frequent  and  close  intercourse, 
even  intermarriage,  or  mutually  profitable  business  re- 
lations, have  had — and  still  have  throughout  Austria- 
Hungary — not  the  effect  of  drawing  such  rival  races  to- 
gether in  bonds  of  friendship  and  tolerance,  but  on  the 
contrary  of  separating  them  spiritually  more  and  more. 

Added  to  this,  however,  must  be  the  strong  racial 
antipathy  in  itself.  Of  all  races  Slavs  and  Teutons  seem 
to  have  this  instinctive  sentiment  strongest  and  most  in- 
eradicable. And  it  is  only  because  of  the  naturally 
indolent  and  dreamy  character  of  the  Slav,  in  juxta- 
position with  the  feeling  of  good-natured  contempt  on 
the  part  of  the  Teutons  (as  dealing  with  *  inferiors") 
that  violent  clashes  between  individuals  or  masses  of 
the  two  races  are  not  more  frequent.  During  this  war, 
when  I  have  had  much  occasion  to  observe  these  things, 
both  at  the  front  and  in  prisoners'  camps,  I  have  been 
struck  by  this  ethnologic  phenomenon.  Instinctively  the 
Slav,  when  he  has  the  choice,  will  turn  rather  to  the 
Latin  (Italian,  Frenchman,  Rumanian)  or  to  the  Celt 
(Irishman,  etc.)  than  to  the  German,  English  or  Ameri- 
can. And  with  the  German  it  is  similar,  whether  he  be 
of  the  true  breed  from  the  Empire  or  of  the  Austrian 
medley.  It  is  often  curious  to  watch  betrayal  of  the 
feeling.  On  a  train  I  once  observed  a  couple  of  Ger- 
man-Americans travelling  in  Bohemia.  They  were  talk- 
ing English  together,  and  the  Czechs  present  listened 
complacently  and  showed  the  pair  every  courtesy.  At 
a  wayside  station  a  Teutonic  Bohemian  boarded  the  car, 
and  on  seating  himself  pulled  out  a  newspaper  printed 
in  German  and  began  to  peruse  it.    After  a  while  one 


INHERENT  DIFFICULTIES  OF  IT  79 

of  the  German- Americans  asked  permission,  in  tolerable 
German,  to  look  at  the  paper  a  moment.  Instantly  the 
temperature  fell  to  the  zero  point.  The  Czechs  froze 
them  simply,  ostracised  them  and  now  began  to  talk 
demonstratively  in  Czech. 

But  it  is  not  only  between  the  Slavs  and  the  Teutons 
within  the  monarchy  that  such  frigid  relations  subsist. 
Between  Magyar  and  Teuton  there  is  likewise  an  im- 
passable gulf.    I  recall  an  instance  in  point. 

It  was  early  in  the  spring  of  1915.  Seated  next  to  me 
in  one  of  the  most  luxurious  coffee  houses  in  Vienna  was 
a  young  Hungarian  officer  of  hussars,  in  his  buttonhole 
a  high  military  decoration.  We  entered  into  conversa- 
tion. He  was  of  distinguished  family,  handsome,  his 
face  lit  up  with  bright  intelligence.  He  was  on  a  short 
leave  from  the  Carpathian  front,  having  done  his  share 
of  the  strenuous  fighting  there.  I  asked  him  his  opinion 
of  the  Russian. 

^'Why,"  he  said,  smiling,  ''the  Russian  is  not  so  bad 
a  fellow  after  all."  And  he  went  into  detail.  Then, 
growing  more  confidential,  he  added:  "Of  the  two,  the 
Austrian  and  the  Russian,  I  much  prefer  the  Russian." 

''Seriously?"  I  asked. 

*'Yes,  seriously,"  was  the  reply,  and  something  fero- 
cious crept  into  his  face. 

Another  case.  A  year  ago  I  met  a  Bavarian  officer  in 
the  pretty  City  Hall  Park  of  Vienna,  and  we  got  to  talk- 
ing. He  was  just  back  from  Ueskiib,  where  he  had  taken 
a  number  of  heavy  German  guns,  so-called  "Fat  Ber- 
thas." And  in  chatting  on  about  this  and  that  of  in- 
terest during  his  trip,  I  incidentally  mentioned  the 
Hungarians.  Then  he  flared  up.  "The  Hungarians? 
Why,  they  seem  worse  than  the  Serbians.  That  is  the 
common  verdict  of  our  men  in  the  Balkans.    Nice  allies, 


80    AUSTRIA-HUNGAKY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

those.  They  hate  the  Austrians  so  bad  that  they  even 
transfer  the  feeling  to  ns  as  their  near  kindred."  And 
he  swore  an  oath  or  two. 

And  this  hatred  is  reciprocated  by  the  Austrians.  AVith 
them,  too,  it  is  elemental,  racial.  It  is  stronger  among 
the  unthinking  masses  than  among  those  forming  the 
upper  crust.  It  found  fresh  fuel  from  the  failure  of 
Hungary  adequately  to  provision  Austria — and  more 
especially  Vienna — during  the  war,  whereas  before  the 
war  a  large  part  of  her  supplies  had  always  reached 
Vienna  from  Hungary.  The  feeling,  too,  betrays  itself 
at  the  front.  Many  cases  of  alleged  mistreatment  of  the 
Hungarian  soldiers  by  Austrian  officers  have  been  dis- 
cussed in  the  Parliament  at  Budapest,  giving  rise  to  in- 
dignant speeches  and  heated  demands  for  redress.  Hun- 
garian and  Austrian  men  would  not  do  together  within 
the  same  regiments. 

But  for  all  that  this  race  rivalry  is  not  an  unmixed 
evil.  That  is  another  curious  side  of  it.  For  lurking 
underneath  the  mutual  aversion  and  distrust,  there  is 
another  feeling,  one  by  the  way  which,  although  circum- 
stances in  most  respects  are  quite  dissimilar,  one  may 
study,  too,  in  this  country  to  good  advantage.  That  is 
the  feeling  of  respect,  reluctantly  entertained  maybe,  yet 
none  the  less  genuine  and  powerful  for  good,  entertained 
by  one  race  for  those  sterling  qualities  in  which  itself 
is  lacking.  This  alloy  of  respect  is  in  most  cases  not 
freely  admitted  to  third  parties.  It  may  hide  itself  under 
the  cloak  of  a  contempt  publicly  and  loudly  expressed 
for  that  very  cast  of  mind  secretly  aspired  after.  But 
the  proof  of  the  pudding  is  in  the  eating.  For  while 
noisily  disparaging  them,  there  will  be  quiet  emulation 
and  imitation.  In  no  other  country,  for  example,  is  this 
truth  more  apparent  than  in  Bohemia.    There  the  people 


INHERENT  DIFFICULTIES  OF  IT  81 

constituting  the  majority  liave  gone  through  the  rough 
school  of  adversity  and  actual  experience,  and  with 
astounding  results.  For  these  are  the  facts:  Nothing 
can  be  plainer  than  that  the  Slav,  of  every  stripe  and 
creed,  is  naturally  of  a  heedless,  slovenly,  spendthrift 
disposition.  The  Czechs  were  so  in  day^  gone  by.  The 
Russians  still  are ;  so  are  all  the  other  Slav  races  whom 
stem  necessity  has  not  moulded  anew.  But  the  Czechs, 
after  studying  for  years  the  secret  of  greater  efficiency 
and  prosperity  on  the  part  of  their  Teutonic  neighbours, 
at  last  took  heed  and  actually  transformed  their  original 
Slav  character,  at  least  insofar  as  to  rid  themselves  of 
the  traits  spoken  of.  With  the  men  of  Germanic  stock, 
they  discovered,  it  was  just  as  natural  to  be  cautious 
and  precise,  thorough  and  painstaking,  saving  almost  to 
the  point  of  parsimoniousness,  as  it  was  for  the  Slav  to 
be  the  reverse.  And  they  also  discovered  that  herein  lay 
a  great  part  of  the  Germanic  successes  over  the  Slav 
wherever  the  two  came  in  competition.  And  so,  as  I  say, 
the  Czech  as  a  race  gradually  began  to  discard  those 
hampering  defects  and  to  assume  the  contrary  ones  of 
his  great  rival  and  foe.  I  am  calling  special  attention 
to  this  fact  for,  psychologically  considered,  it  is  nothing 
short  of  marvellous.  It  would  indeed  do  no  harm  for  the 
American  people  as  a  whole  to  take  a  leaf  out  of  this 
Czech  book  and  to  make  the  movement  for  a  wise  econ- 
omy— a  movement  now  pushed  and  advocated  under  the 
unprecedented  war  conditions — a  big  reality;  to  turn 
from  the  most  wasteful  people  in  the  universe  into  one 
where — not  niggardliness  but — reasonable  finigality  be- 
came the  rule  rather  than  the  exception.  That  in  itself 
would  be  a  glorious  achievement  due  to  the  war;  albeit 
it  still  seems  far  off,  for  the  eradication  of  a  national 
trait  that  has  entered  into  the  very  grain  is  a  most  diffi- 


82    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

cult  thing,  possible  only  in  a  really  serious  and  far-reach- 
ing emergency.    But  I  am  straying  from  my  own  topic. 
And  there  is  absolutely  no  doubt  that  such  a  metamor- 
phosis in  the  Czech  soul  has  been  accomplished  and  that 
it  can  be  due  to  nothing  else  but  the  bitter  and  strenuous, 
the  age-long  competition  with  the  Teuton,  his  neighbour 
and  fellow-denizen  of  Bohemia.     The  Czech,  of  all  the 
Slav  races  and  nations,  is  the  only  one  who  has  acquired, 
to   an  extent  truly   amazing,  these   peculiarly   Teuton 
qualities  of  character.     He  has  become  saving,  husband- 
ing his  resources,  national  as  private,  with  patient  skill. 
He  has  amassed  in  that  way  wealth  and  large  capital. 
From  a  country  where  Slav  wasteful  and  haphazard 
methods  prevailed  but  sixty  or  seventy  years  ago,  the 
Czech  part  of  Bohemia  just  as  much  as  the  one  settled  by 
men  of  Teuton  stock,  has  become  the  richest  and  most 
carefully   administered   within   the   whole    of    Austria- 
Hungary.    With  the  aquisition  of  those  new  traits  he 
also  combined  practical  results  of  another  and  not  less 
desirable  kind.    Like  all  the  Slavs  the  Czechs  were  a 
nation  of  agriculturists,  almost  purely  and  entirely  so, 
until  about  1860.     Within  the   short   period   since   the 
Czechs  have  not  abandoned  tilling  of  their  own  soil  cer- 
tainly, but  they  have  successfully  invaded  all  the  other 
fields  of  human  activity  in  which  their  Teutonic  fellow- 
Bohemians  formerly  held  a  monopoly.  They  have  entered 
industry  and  manufacturing,  the  important  domain  of 
finance  and  banking,  and,  to  cap  it  all,  all  the  learned 
professions  as  well,  including  those  in  the  technical  and 
administrative  line,  such  as  civil  engineering,  electrics, 
architecture,  railroad  construction,  the  management  of 
big  industrial  enterprises  and  estates,  etc.,  etc.    And  in 
all  these,  for  them  quite  new  and  untried  spheres   of 
activity,  they  have  done  well,  displaying  the  very  pro- 


INHERENT  DIFFICULTIES  OF  IT  83 

clivities  which  formerly  they  lacked — those  of  steady 
patience,  perseverance,  thoroughness  and  indefatigable 
industry.  So  much  so  indeed  that,  the  home  opportuni- 
ties offering  them,  after  all,  but  a  limited  area,  thousands 
of  such  splendidly  equipped  Czech  scientists  and  tech- 
nicians have  gone  abroad  and  found  influential  and  well- 
remunerated  posts  in  Russia,  the  Balkan,  in  South  and 
North  America — in  fact,  everywhere.  Those  are  facts  I 
am  citing,  easily  ascertainable  and  corroborated  from  the 
records  of  the  Czech  School  of  Technology  (itself  a  com- 
paratively recent  proof  of  their  enterprise)  in  Prague 
and  from  those  of  the  Czech  University  there,  where  full 
lists  are  kept  of  the  alumni.  These  facts  speak  an  elo- 
quent language,  and  they  certainly  demonstrate  that  race 
hatred  and  race  rivalry  may  also  lead,  as  a  by-product, 
if  I  may  say  so,  to  admirable  and  very  tangible  results. 
This  showing  becomes  all  the  more  wonderful  when  it  is 
kept  in  mind  that  the  Czechs  after  all  are  but  a  small 
people,  numbering  barely  six  millions  altogether,  count- 
ing in  every  part  of  the  world,  and  that  they  started  out 
rather  late  on  their  modern  road  and  were  seriously 
handicapped  at  first  by  being,  up  to  1860  or  thereabouts, 
in  their  large  bulk  a  race  possessing  few  good  schools 
and  higher  seats  of  learning,  mostly  belonging  to  the 
lower  middle  classes  and  the  proletariat,  and  having 
small  capital  to  be  used  for  such  purposes  as  were  out- 
lined above.  Truly,  it  is  a  magnificent  showing  they 
point  to  with  pride  to-day. 

In  other  parts  of  Austria-Hungary  similar  movements 
have  been  inaugurated  aiming  at  the  emancipation  of  the 
Slavs  from  the  former  Austrian-Teuton  exclusive  tenure 
of  all  the  higher  walks  of  life,  but  by  no  means  with 
similarly  brilliant  results.  These,  too,  besides  the  general 
human  desire  of  advancement,  have  had  their  motive 


84     AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

partly  in  race  rivalry.  But  while  by  no  means  so  far 
advanced  as  in  Bohemia,  the  percentage  of  those  Slavs 
in  Moravia,  Silesia,  Galicia  and  in  the  provinces  pre- 
dominantly settled  by  Slovenes,  Croatians,  Servians, 
Bosnians,  etc.,  who  have  climbed  np  to  the  heights  of 
intellectual  and  social  life  is  annually  rising.  One  must 
not  forget,  either,  in  this  connection  to  mention  the  very 
large  share  which  the  Jewish  element,  in  both  halves  of 
the  monarchy,  have  secured  for  themselves.  For  this 
share  is  far  greater  than  the  Jews  would  be  entitled  to 
on  a  purely  numerical  basis.  Indeed  they  not  only  enjoy 
a  practical  monopoly  of  the  financial  life  of  Austria- 
Hungary,  but  they  also  do  so  in  certain  professions,  such 
as  the  medical,  the  journalistic,  the  manufacturing,  and, 
in  some  specialties,  the  legal  one.  That  they  dominate 
in  the  press  of  Austria-Hungary  is  of  real  significance, 
and  as  they  avowedly  or  unavowedly,  in  their  hearts, 
nearly  all  cherish  tenets  of  Liberalism,  something  may 
be  augured  for  the  future  of  the  country  once  the  way 
becomes  clearer  towards  progress. 

By  an  unobstructed  road  I  mean,  among  other  things, 
one  freed  from  the  incubus  of  red-tapeism  and  of  a  hide- 
bound and  inane  bureaucratism.  This  applies  to  Hun- 
gary almost  as  much  as  to  Austria.  Stiff  formalism  in 
conducting  the  smaller  affairs  of  the  state  and  in  its  re- 
lations with  the  taxpaying  mass  of  subjects,  is  a  curse  of 
the  Dual  Monarchy  which  might  be  abolished  w^ithout  a 
great  deal  of  effort.  All  those  who  have  ever  had  any 
dealings  with  this  stupid  monster  of  bureaucracy  in 
Austria-Hungary  know  how  firaily  lodged  it  is.  It  is  a 
remnant  of  the  days  of  absolutism,  incongruous  under 
constitutional  government,  and  it  ought  to  be  done  away 
with,  for  it  not  only  wastes  an  enormous  amount  of  time 
for  the  population  as  a  whole,  who  whenever  there  is  any 


INHERENT  DIFEICULTIES  OF  IT  85 

enforced  intercourse  with  officialdom  are  made  to  wait 
in  the  antechambers  an  unconscionable  time,  but  it  also 
involves  the  employment  of  an  army  of  government 
henchmen  who,  for  the  most  part,  are  superfluous  and  in 
their  doings  and  attitude  of  mind  strongly  remind  one  of 
the  Circumlocution  Office.  The  attitude  of  mind  of  all 
these  useless  underlings  is  totally  wrong.  It  is  that  of 
master  towards  the  subordinate ;  it  seems  to  assume  that 
all  these  people  are  there  for  the  single  purpose  of 
bothering  them  and  disturbing  them  in  their  comfort.  I 
admit  that  when  once  you  have  caught  the  angle  whence 
they  view  this  world,  you  understand  it  all.  They  are 
not,  as  a  rule,  ill-natured,  rude  or  unduly  puffed  up,  this 
army  of  Barnacles.  And  they  will  blandly  tell  you  their 
grievances  if  you  take  the  trouble  to  inquire.  They  are 
all  underpaid,  these  modern  Sir  Tituses,  and  usually  have 
to  eke  out  their  income  from  private  sources.  They  have 
to  go  through  an  expensive  university  course  and  then, 
for  more  years,  as  supernumeraries,  serve  the  state 
gratis.  Wliat  wonder  they  frankly  look  upon  all  this 
pestering  public  as  their  natural  enemies,  as  creatures 
specially  devised  by  an  unkind  Providence  to  interfere 
with  their  luncheon  and  coffee-house  and  card-playing 
hours.  The  idea  never  dawns  on  them  that  they  are, 
in  a  manner  of  speaking,  the  servants  of  this  hydra- 
headed  public.  So  that  is  their  point  of  view,  and  for 
the  extremely  limited  stipend  which  the  government  pays 
them  they  doubtless  do  enough  work  in  the  Sealing- Wax 
or  other  line  of  office.  But  the  real  trouble  is  that  nine- 
tenths  of  their  labours  are  sheer  waste ;  that  those  legions 
of  half -paid  triflers  might  be  condensed  down  to  a  few 
companies,  and  this  to  the  vast  benefit  of  the  country  as 
a  whole.  However,  ihe  Barnacles  will  never  take  this 
side  of  the  matter.     They  will  go  down,  some  fine  day, 


86    AUSTEIA-IIUNGAKY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

with  all  the  colours  at  the  masthead,  thinking  the  world 
has  come  to  an  end.  And  meanwhile,  so  long  as  the  fun 
lasts,  all  the  solicitous  mothers  in  Austria  and  Hungary 
go  on  scheming  and  intriguing  and  knee-bowing  to  the 
end  that  their  Tony  or  Arpad  or  Rudolph  may,  first,  get 
an  appointment  under  government,  even  if  the  initial 
salary  be  but  twopence  halfpenny  per  annum,  and  then 
to  obtain  promotion  for  him  within  about  ten  or  fifteen 
years.  When  he  does  get  it  his  poll  is  sadly  thinning, 
and  when  at  last,  at  forty-five  or  fifty,  his  emoluments 
enable  him  to  marry,  he  is  bald,  and  nearly  ready  to 
retire  and  get  a  pension  of  another  twopence  halfpenny 
to  the  end  of  his  days.  The  craze  for  the  Staatsdienst, 
i.e.,  government  service,  is  truly  amazing  in  Austria-Hun- 
gary. The  mania  is  well-nigh  universal.  All  the  middle 
class  and  the  lower  strata  of  the  nobility,  impoverished 
or  not,  are  bitten  with  it.  They  will  explain:  ''It  is  the 
one  career  for  a  young  man  which  offers  a  certainty"  (a 
certainty  to  stance,  one  might  answer,  at  least  if  the 
salary  alone  is  to  be  depended  on),  ''and  then,  the  pen- 
sion." The  last  remark  clinches  the  argument.  Surely 
this  craze  is  in  good  measure  responsible  for  the  very 
general  lack  of  individual  initiative,  of  a  healthy  am- 
bition in  young  men.  One  is  strongly  reminded  of  the 
fact  when  debating  this  or  other  unhealthy  sj^mptoms  in 
Austrian  and  Hungarian  social  and  political  life,  that  the 
Jesuits  practically  ran  the  whole  monarchy  for  two  cen- 
turies, and  that  the  Concordat,  the  agreement  with  the 
Vatican  in  the  last  century,  gave  the  whole  education  into 
the  hands  of  the  Church  and  made  that  not  only  keeper 
of  the  country's  conscience  but  of  its  intellect  as  well. 
There  is  no  broad  outlook  on  life  in  them ;  their  vista  is 
narrow,  and  the  above  matter  is  one  of  the  most  striking 
illustrations  of  it. 


INHEEENT  DIFFICULTIES  OF  IT  87 

Bismarck  in  his  GedanJcen  unci  Erinnerungen,  those 
thoughts  and  reminiscences  of  his  in  which  the  concen- 
trated essence  of  that  great  cynic  is  contained,  deals  a 
good  deal  with  Austria-Hungary.  It  was  a  country  and 
people  to  which  he  had  given  much  reflection,  and  some 
of  his  aphoristic  remarks  about  it  are  mordant  and  piti- 
lessly true.  One  of  them,  though,  is  that  if  Austria  did 
not  exist,  it  would  have  to  be  specially  created.  He  meant 
as  a  buffer  state  and  a  bridge  to  the  Orient,  and  from  his 
point  of  view  that  is  quite  true.  But  he  always  held  the 
opinion  that  in  the  quality  of  its  mind,  Austria  is  about 
two  centuries  behind.  Certain  it  is  that  in  its  officialism 
it  calls  urgently  for  reforms.  For  it  is  cumbersome,  eats 
up  an  unnecessarily  large  portion  of  the  country's 
revenues,  and  accomplishes  more  harm  than  good.  There 
is,  for  example,  the  State  Police,  a  huge  body  of  under- 
paid detectives  who  have  never  prevented  serious  crimes 
or  detected  in  time  bodies  of  those  plotters — irredentists, 
nationalists,  etc. — that  methodically  undermined  the 
structure  of  the  state.  Though  a  whole  regiment  of  them 
went  along  with  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand  on  his  last 
and  fatal  journey  to  Bosnia,  they  could  not  hinder  the 
double  murder.  Yet  this  corps  of  drones,  wholly  in- 
competent as  they  are,  are  extremely  vexatious  and  in- 
quisitive as  regards  any  stranger  or  foreigner  at  all  out 
of  the  ordinary  run  of  affairs.  They  do  not  earn  their 
money,  but  they  make  a  great  show  and  bustle,  all  to  no 
purpose.  Again  the  least  and  simplest  business  a  man 
has  with  the  Red-Tape  Brigade  involves  from  a  week  to 
a  fortnight's  loss  of  time,  with  personal  attendance  on  a 
score  of  official  whipper-snappers  in  as  many  stuffy  little, 
cigarette-smoke  perfumed  backrooms,  humbly  petition- 
ing the  creature  of  the  moment  to  expedite  your  trifling 
matter.    It  has  been  calculated  that  to  transact,  for  in- 


88    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

stance,  such  a  small  thing  as  the  making  out  of  a  tax 
receipt,  twenty-three  officials  have  to  have  a  finger  in  the 
pie,  with  as  many  signatures,  counter-signatures,  errors, 
beginnings  all  over  again,  and  final  adjustment.  With 
all  that,  I  must  freely  own,  they  are  never  cross.  They 
are  merely  dilatory,  and  that  with  them  is  a  chief  merit 
of  the  Circumlocution  Office.  Things  are  always  going 
on  in  this  funny  old  gristmill;  there  is  something  doing 
all  the  time ;  but  it  is  never  the  right  thing.  Let  us  hope 
that  the  present  young  emperor,  a  highly  estimable  man 
despite  his  paternal  blemishes,  will  do  his  best  to  scotch 
or  kill  this  venerable  monster,  Red-Tape.  It  would  be 
w^orth  more  than  his  offensive,  a  year  ago,  on  the  Italian 
front. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CENTRALISATION   AND   DECENTRALISATION 

Austria-Hungary  at  the  decisive  turn  of  the  road — A  declaration  by  the 
late  Emperor  on  initiating  his  reign — Sixty-nine  years  ago — It  came 
to  naught — Untoward  events  overwhelmed  him — Unsound  finances 
retarded  growth — And  the  war  of  '66  did  the  rest — The  position  of 
Hungary  again  peculiar — For  the  centralising  policy  of  Hungary 
necessarily  reacted  on  that  of  Austria — Louis  Kossuth  on  the  mis- 
sion of  the  Magyar — Austria's  Teutonic  element  still  largely  living 
in  the  past — Dread  to  face  the  real  facts — "Condemned  to  be  an 
eternal  minority" — This  war  only  has  wakened  them  to  see  the  issue 
clearly — The  paroxysm  of  nationalism  has  wasted  large  part  of  the 
monarchy's  life  blood — Now  is  the  time  to  cut  the  Gordian  knot. 

What  has  been  written  in  this  book  on  the  race  problem 
of  Austria-Hungary  has  been  written  in  vain  if  it  has  not 
brought  the  conviction  home  to  the  reader  that  the 
ancient  monarchy  has  at  last  arrived  at  the  decisive  turn 
of  the  road.  And  this  independent  of  the  fact  that  the 
present  war  has  made  the  whole  world  cognizant  of  the 
supreme  crisis.  For  long  before,  years  and  years  before 
swords  were  crossed  on  the  battlefields,  internal  develop- 
ment in  Austria-Hungary  made  it  plain  that  things  could 
not  much  longer  go  on  as  they  had.  There  is  a  natural 
limit  to  everything,  and  that  procrastinating  system  so 
long  in  vogue  there  and  for  which  Count  Taaffe,  who 
kept  the  premiership  for  fourteen  long  and  unfruitful 
years,  had  coined  the  phrase:  "Es  wird  fortgewursteW* 
(an  untranslatable  term  of  Austrian  patois;  about :  We'll 
continue  to  live  from  hand  to  mouth),  had  about  reached 

89 


90    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

the  end  of  its  tether.  Something,  even  if  the  war  had  not 
come,  was  bound  to  happen  in  Austria-Hungary  before 
long,  something  putting  an  end  to  the  old  ways  and 
starting  off  on  a  new  chapter,  something  destroying  the 
decrepit  old  structure  or  else  putting  it  on  a  brand-new 
foundation.  In  a  correspondence  I  wrote  from  Vienna 
about  a  year  before  the  outbreak  of  the  present  world 
struggle  I  remember  I  made  use  of  the  expression:  "It 
is  one  of  the  marvels  of  the  age  that  this  hoary  monarchy 
is  still  somehow  hanging  together.  But  it  cannot  be  for 
much  longer,  at  least  not  on  the  existing  plan.  It  must 
go  to  pieces."  And  this  was  said  although  by  that  time 
I  had  learned  to  love  the  country  and  people,  was  said 
without  a  grain  of  ill-will  towards  either ;  simply  because 
a  thorough  study  of  conditions  had  convinced  me  of  their 
untenability. 

On  December  2,  1848,  a  proclamation  was  issued  from 
the  archiepiscopal  palace  at  Olmiitz,  Moravia,  wherein 
Francis  Joseph,  then  a  youth  of  18,  on  succeeding  his 
uncle,  the  Emperor  Ferdinand,  on  the  tottering  throne, 
had  declared: 

"Fully  recognising,  free  of  compulsion,  the  need  and 
the  high  value  of  free  institutions  adapted  to  the  times,  we 
confidently  enter  the  path  which  is  to  lead  us  to  a  glorious 
transformation  and  rejuvenation  of  the  whole  monarchy. 
Our  homeland  will  rise  anew,  resting  on  the  broad  basis 
of  equal  rights  and  opportunities  for  all  the  peoples  of 
the  empire  and  of  equal  justice  for  all  citizens  before  the 
law,  as  well  as  equal  sharing  of  all  representatives  in 
legislation." 

Those  were  courageous  words  for  a  young  man  not  yet 
out  of  his  teens.  They  meant,  if  they  meant  anything  at 
all,  complete  severance  from  the  absolutism  that  had  so 
far  been  the  guiding  principle  of  government.  They  were 


CENTEALISATION  AND  DECENTRALISATION  91 

spoken  at  a  moment  when  Emperor  Ferdinand,  too  timid 
and  resourceless  to  breast  the  rising  waves  of  revolution 
throughout  the  empire,  driven  from  his  capital  to  seek  a 
refuge  in  the  fortified  town  of  Olmutz,  had  abdicated  and 
left  an  almost  superhuman  burden  to  this  callow  boy  of 
18.  But  fair  words,  after  all,  are  but  fair  words.  In 
that  year  of  European  upheaval,  in  1848,  many  another 
sovereign  ruler  had  used  glittering  generalities  and 
made  brilliant  promises  to  his  duped  subjects,  only  to 
forget  them  when  the  hour  of  danger  was  past.  It  was 
not  much  different  with  the  young  Emperor  Francis 
Joseph.  Under  the  overweening  influence  of  his  auto- 
cratic mother,  the  Archduchess  Sophia,  he  did  the  like. 
A  whole  twelvemonth  of  hard  fighting  to  maintain  him- 
self in  authority  had  yet  to  come  and  go  before  the  crown 
sat  firmly  on  his  brow.  And  then — why,  then  he  reverted 
once  more  for  a  number  of  years  to  the  absolutism  of  old. 
The  proclamation,  looked  at  as  a  declaration  of  prin- 
ciples, came  to  naught.  It  is  a  fair  question  whether 
Francis  Joseph  should  ever  have  been  reminded  again 
of  these  ' '  free  institutions ' '  he  waxed  so  eloquent  about 
in  the  hour  of  his  accession  if — this  time  at  least — there 
had  been  no  compulsion  about  it.  It  was  the  deeply  in- 
volved state  of  national  finances  that  acted  on  him  as  a 
spur.  By  1855  these  were  in  such  a  hopelessly  entangled 
state  that  nothing  was  left  for  him  but  to  remember  once 
more  his  budget  of  promises.  Austria  at  that  time  was 
on  the  brink  of  national  bankruptcy.  With  a  paper  cur- 
rency of  enforced  circulation,  yet  sunk  so  low  in  actual 
value  that  it  took  six  bills  to  equal  one  coin  in  the  country 
itself,  and  with  credit  abroad  gone,  the  monarch  was 
forced  to  bethink  him  of  summoning  a  parliament  to  be- 
gin and  set  things  right.  A  complaisant  parliament  he 
wanted,  of  course,  one  to  raise  big  taxes,  to  contract 


92    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

foreign  loans,  to  pledge  the  support  of  the  whole  country 
as  an  asset.  He  did  not  get  it,  however.  Still,  it  enabled 
him  to  keep  the  finances  of  the  country  barely  above 
water.  Not  until  1867,  in  fact,  not  until  after  the  un- 
fortunate issue  of  the  war  with  Prussia,  did  Francis 
Joseph  begin  to  realise  how  true  Lincoln's  saying  was 
about  nobody  being  able  to  "fool  all  the  people  all  the 
time."  Only  from  that  year  really  dates  the  beginning 
of  parliamentary  life  in  the  Dual  Monarchy.  Perhaps 
Francis  Joseph  had  actually  meant  what  he  said  in  his 
proclamation  of  December  2,  1848.  But  if  so  untoward 
events  overwhelmed  him  and  made  fulfilment  of  his  word 
next  to  impossible. 

At  any  rate,  with  1867  began  parliamentary  life  in 
earnest.  It  was  of  a  peculiar  kind,  though.  Looked  at 
superficially,  there  is  a  strong  parallel  between  it  and 
that  of  England.  But  the  similarity  ceases  when  one 
peers  below  the  surface.  For  there  is  this  vital  differ- 
ence to  be  noted:  England's  parliamentary  rule  is  real. 
There  the  King  rules  but  does  not  govern.  In  Austria- 
Hungary  the  monarch  both  rules  and  governs.  True,  in 
the  latter  as  in  the  former  when  the  leading  statesman, 
the  premier — in  Austria  as  well  as  Hungary — has  failed 
in  his  avowed  policy  he  resigns.  But  while  in  England 
in  that  contingency  the  monarch,  under  the  unwritten 
constitution,  summons  the  leader  of  the  opposition  and 
entrusts  him  with  the  task  of  forming  a  new  cabinet  and 
of  mapping  out  for  himself  and  his  victorious  party  a 
new  programme,  without  in  the  least  interfering  as  to  the 
character  of  the  proposed  new  legislation,  in  Austria- 
Hungary  it  is  different.  There  the  monarch,  in  his  ca- 
pacity of  Austrian  emperor  or  Hungarian  king,  as  the 
case  may  be,  calls  upon  another  leader,  talks  things  over 
thoroughly,  indicates  to  him  the  chief  desires    of    the 


CENTRALISATION  AND  DECENTRALISATION   93 

crown — i.e.,  his  own  desires — and  questions  him  as  to  his 
ability  to  range  enough  members  of  parliament  on  his 
side  to  carry  out  a  policy  in  which  the  main  features  are 
to  correspond  with  what  the  monarch,  in  his  judgment, 
deems  paramount  to  the  welfare  of  the  monarchy.  Only 
such  a  one  as  is  able  to  undertake  the  work  on  these  terms 
is  entrusted  by  him  with  it.  There  must  be,  therefore, 
substantial  agreement  between  the  views  of  this  candi- 
date for  the  premiership  and  those  of  the  monarch  to 
make  a  new  cabinet  and  a  new  policy  feasible.  In  other 
words,  this  Austro-Hungarian  parliamentarism  is  only 
the  shadow  of  the  real  thing,  not  its  substance.  For  the 
monarch  rules  and  governs  both.  The  line  of  conduct, 
in  its  leading  scheme,  is  laid  out  by  him.  He  is,  there- 
fore, at  least  in  some  highly  important  respects,  the 
parliament  as  well  as  the  sovereign.  And  this  state  of 
things  applies  to  Austria  and  to  Hungary  alike.  It  is  a 
sham;  a  pretence.  It  is  not,  in  its  full  sense,  popular 
government ;  these  two  countries  are  not  living,  in  essen- 
tial respects,  under  free  institutions.  But  it  is  not  to 
be  denied  that  in  all  this  the  sovereign  remains  strictly 
within  those  bounds  defined  by  the  constitutions  of  the 
two  countries.  It  is,  therefore,  constitutional  govern- 
ment, only  the  constitutions  are  framed  so  as  not  to 
meet  entirely  the  wishes  of  the  people. 

Now  in  Austria,  as  shown  elsewhere,  the  old,  old  policy 
of  centralisation  had  broken  down  by  1867,  and  since 
then,  in  a  half-hearted  way,  autonomous  rule  of  the  vari- 
ous provinces  has  been  inaugurated.  It  has  not  gone  far 
enough,  this  new  system  of  granting  semi-independence 
to  the  national  entities  composing  the  whole.  But  it  has 
at  least  been  tried  for  a  number  of  years  within  some- 
what narrow  limits.  It  did  not  meet  with  full  satisfac- 
tion anywhere,  largely  because  it  stopped  short  of  its 


94    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

goal,  but  also  because  in  Hungary  the  contrary  policy 
has  been  in  practice  since  1867.     For  that  is  one  of  those 
odd  coincidences   in  history,   that  the   Magyars,   after 
themselves  for  several  centuries  suffering  sorely  under 
the  former  Austrian  system  of  centralisation,  adopted 
it  themselves  the  moment  they  were  enabled  to  do  so 
under  the  terms  of  the  Ausgleich  which  granted  them  a 
free  hand  in  their  own  internal  affairs.    In  fact,  in  Hun- 
gary it  took  the  pronounced  form  of  denationalisation, 
applied  to  all  non-Magyar  nationalities  dwelling  within 
the  borders  of  Hungary.     This  policy  has  been  steadily 
and  relentlessly  pursued  in  Hungary  for  fifty  years  past. 
Every  effective  weapon  has  been  used  in  its  service.  The 
nomenclature  of  towns,  rivers,  mountains,  lakes,  districts 
has  been   altered   completely,   newly  invented   Magyar 
names  being  substituted  for  the  old  ones — which  were 
Rumanian,  Slav,  or  German.    A  strict  set  of  laws  com- 
pels attendance  at  public  schools  where  the  language  of 
tuition  is  invariably  Magyar.     A  thorough  knowledge  of 
Magyar  is  necessary  under  the  new  dispensation  in  order 
to  hold  office,  no  matter  how  inconsequential,  to  transact 
business,  in  fact,  do  or  accomplish  anything  whatever. 
The  Magyar  clergy  has  been  a  powerful  ally  of  the 
Central  government  in  Budapest  in  this  campaign  of 
rooting  out  anything  not  in  consonance  with  these  cen- 
tralising purposes.     Of  course,  the  Magyars  in  all  this 
are  propelled  by  powerful  motives  which  to  them  seem 
perfectly  sufficient.    It  was  Louis  Kossuth,  the  patriot 
statesman  of  1848-49,  who  long  ago  formulated  the  dic- 
tum: ''We  Magyars  interrupt  the  Panslavic  flood.  Never 
the  ambitious  plans  of  Panslavism  can  be  realised,  except 
if  Hungary  be  first  cut  up  as  was  the  mantle  of  the  cruci- 
fied Christ."    And  these  words  form  in  a  measure  the 
guiding  principle  with  most  Magyars.    It  must  be  owned 


CENTRALISATION  AND  DECENTRALISATION   95 

that  in  this  ceaseless  crusade  in  behalf  of  Magyarism 
they  have  been  extraordinarily  successful  on  the  whole. 
The  census  figures,  decade  after  decade,  are  most  eloquent 
witnesses  of  that.  For  they  reveal  that  several  millions 
of  persons  of  non-Magyar  stock  have  within  the  past 
fifty  years  yielded  to  compulsion,  persuasion  and  other 
private  or  public  agencies  employed,  and  have  joined 
the  Magyar  camp,  forswearing  bonds  of  race  and  blood 
in  doing  so.  It  is  fortunate  for  the  Magyars  that  that 
is  the  way  their  policy  has  turned  out,  for  otherwise,  with 
their  small  natural  rate  of  increase  (for  the  Slavic  ele- 
ments the  rate  of  increase  being  indeed  nearly  double 
that  of  the  Magyars),  they  would  not  only  have  remained 
a  steadily  decreasing  minority,  but  their  whole  system 
of  nationalisation  would  have  suffered  shipwreck  in  the 
end. 

Of  course  the  centralising  policy  pursued  so  ruthlessly 
in  Hungary  could  not  but  react  powerfully  on  Austria. 
It  did  so,  in  the  nature  of  things,  primarily  on  the  Teu- 
tonic element  there.  That  with  its  ten  millions  formed, 
numerically  at  least,  a  block  of  great  force  when  opposing 
growing  Slavic  autonomy.  Added  to  it  was  the  better 
schooling,  the  greater  wealth,  the  historic  claims  and 
the  wider  distribution  of  intelligence  to  promote  their 
struggle  for  the  retention  of  former  predominance.  Else- 
where I  have  described  how  despite  these  powerful  van- 
tage points  the  Teutonic  element  has  failed  to  keep  its 
supremacy.  But  this  fact  has  as  yet  scarcely  been 
brought  home  to  the  Austrians  of  Germanic  lineage.  It 
was  Bismarck  who,  in  this  as  in  everything  else  a  realist 
before  everything  else,  spoke  of  these  Austrian  Teutons 
as  "condemned  to  be  an  eternal  minority."  But  though 
years  have  passed  since  the  cruelly  blunt  word  was 
spoken,  the  German  Austrians  have  not  yet  dared  to  face 


96    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

the  real  facts.  They,  or  at  least  very  many  of  them, 
continue  to  blind  themselves.  They  are  still  living  largely 
in  the  past:  in  the  past  when  "they  were  Austria,"  the 
rest  but  secondary.  It  is  truly  pathetic  to  observe  many 
of  these  men  who  will  not  look  the  truth  firmly  in  the 
eye.  I  once  discussed  the  present  and  prospective  future 
of  Vienna  with  an  ''Urwiener"  (one  belonging  to  an  old 
Vienna  family),  an  aged  physician  of  more  than  ordinary 
intelligence.  And  I  called  his  attention  to  the  undeniable 
fact  of  the  town  becoming  more  and  more  Slavic  each 
year,  pointing  to  a  row  of  street  signs  opposite,  every  one 
of  which  bore  a  Slav  name.  *'But,"  he  retorted,  ''these 
men  all  become  good  Viennese  after  a  while.  They  marry 
here,  and  their  wives  make  them  learn  German. ' '  It  was 
no  use  debating  with  him.  His  race  pride  was  too  strong 
not  to  be  powerfully  shocked  by  his  native  town,  once 
the  greatest  centre  of  Germanic  civilisation,  rapidly  be- 
coming the  greatest  rampart  of  Slavicism.  They  will 
not  see,  and,  therefore,  they  do  not  see.  But  this  present 
war  has  done  very  much  to  open  their  eyes.  The  whole 
course  of  it  has  shown  them  that  many  things  they  fondly 
believed  in  are  nothing  better  than  fallacies.  It  has 
shaken  these  plethoric,  easy-going  folk  of  German  Aus- 
tria out  of  their  long  sleep.  It  has  brought  home  to  them 
that  they  are  hopelessly  outdistanced,  outnumbered,  out- 
manoeuvred ;  that  the  Slav  of  Austria  is  the  coming  man 
and  will  not  any  longer  be  denied  his  due.  Few  of  them 
are  powerful  thinkers ;  fewer  still  care  to  have  the  logic 
of  cold  fact  as  their  chief  finger  post  in  life.  But  they 
have,  now  at  last,  in  their  majority  begun  to  view  this 
whole  problem  of  race  supremacy  from  the  right  angle. 
They  commence  to  see  the  issue  clearly  and  to  write  Finis 
under  that  long  chapter  of  exclusive  German-Austrian 


CENTRALISATION  AND  DECENTRALISATION   97 

triumph  which  really  came  to  an  end  quite  some  time 
ago. 

It  will  be  a  harbinger  of  better  things  to  come  for  Aus- 
tria and  Hungary  when  the  paroxysm  of  nationalistic 
fever  that  has  wasted  such  stores  of  energy  to  little  or 
no  purpose,  really  does  come  to  a  close.  The  sterile  race 
strife  has  immeasurably  hindered  progress  and  pros- 
perity, quite  aside  from  embittering,  every  hour  in  the 
day  almost,  mutual  relations  between  the  different 
peoples.  And  the  hour  has  now  struck  to  cut  the  Gordian 
knot.  There  is  no  smoother  way  to  do  it.  Indeed,  it 
must  be  cut.  It  can  never  be  merely  unravelled.  Drastic 
treatment  is  the  only  one  indicated  for  this  evil.  To 
longer  persist  in  administering  Count  Taaife's  prescrip- 
tion, the  ^'Fortwur stein,"  would  be  sheer  suicide.  Aus- 
tria-Hungary is  doomed  unless  she  resolutely  applies  the 
surgeon's  knife  and  cuts  down  deep,  cuts  out  the  cancer; 
of  race  strife  with  all  its  roots. 

The  Ausgleich  of  1867,  though  an  extremely  clever 
expedient  at  a  time  when  a  cut  de  sac  had  been  reached 
that  seemed  to  exclude  any  outlet  at  all,  was  the  work  of 
a  prestidigitator,  of  a  diplomat  fertile  in  devising  palli- 
atives. But  it  was  not  the  work  of  a  real  constructive 
statesman.  It  could  not  endure.  For  it  contained  from 
the  very  start  one  fundamental  error.  It  was  based  on 
the  assumption  that  the  Magyar  and  the  Teutonic  ele- 
ments were  the  two  which  could  for  all  time  be  depended 
upon  for  supremacy;  that  they  too  would  permanently 
keep  the  sceptre  of  government  in  a  firm  and  unyielding 
hand;  that  they  alone  sufficed  as  dominant  factors  to 
have  the  monarchy  as  a  whole  hold  its  own  in  the  march 
of  time;  that  they  alone  could  neutralise  the  racial  at- 
traction and  aversions  so  powerfully  moulding  other 
nations ;  that  these  two,  the  Magyars  and  the  Teutons  of 


98    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

Austria,  would  form  the  economic  and  political  forces 
shaping  and  developing  the  whole  body.  And  that,  of 
course,  was  a  huge  and  fatal  misconception.  It  pre- 
destined from  the  beginning  to  destruction  the  political 
edifice  reared  on  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  absolutistic 
pile.  And  it  is  now  the  question  of  making  the  foun- 
dation broader  and  surer  than  this  present  one. 


CHAPTER  VII 

SOLUTION    OF   THE   ENIGMA 

Late  heir  to  the  throne  favoured  the  Trias  in  lieu  of  the  Dual  Monarchy 
— If  he  had  lived  a  South  Slavic  kingdom  would  have  been  estab- 
lished, and  Bohemia  would  have  obtained  far-reaching  autonomy — 
Why  the  Trias  would  not  solve  the  problem — It  would  leave  several 
discontented  nationalities— The  only  radical  remedy  is  self-govern- 
ment for  each  race — Foreshadowed  by  Emperor  Carl's  recent  throne 
speech  in  opening  the  Reichsrat — A  daring  experiment,  but  must  be 
made — The  status  of  Galicia — Hungary's  consent  to  the  newly  in- 
augurated policy  indispensable — Count  Stephen  Tisza's  fall  from 
power  due  to  his  opposition  to  broad  manhood  suffrage  in  Hungary 
— He  fears  the  end  of  Magyar  supremacy — Delicate  negotiations 
now  proceeding — Why  the  young  Monarch  deferred  the  oath  on 
the  constitution — The  Ausgleich  has  nm  its  course — It  must  be 
superseded — A  general  prognostieon  of  the  Austria-Hungary  of  the 
future. 

When  the  bullet  of  that  half -elemented  youth,  Gavril 
Cabrinovic,  put  an  end  to  the  life  of  Archduke  Francis 
Ferdinand,  heir  to  the  parlous  throne  of  Austria-Hun- 
gary, it  removed  from  the  scene  a  man  upon  whom  the 
hopes  of  the  whole  monarchy  had  been  centred.  For 
Francis  Ferdinand  had  both  the  brains  and  the  energy 
needed  for  the  rejuvenation  of  the  country.  Personally 
he  was  not  what  might  be  called  a  pleasant  sort  of  man. 
He  was  taciturn,  rather  rough  and  aggressive  in  his  bear- 
ing, and  a  rigid  disciplinarian,  an  out-and-out  martinet 
in  his  official  relations.  Thus  he  was  the  exact  antipode 
of  his  uncle,  the  late  Francis  Joseph,  who  united  in  his 

99 


100    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

person  all  the  essential  traits  of  the  typical  Austrian — 
being  easy-going,  full  of  bonhomie,  somewhat  lax  in 
sexual  morality,  a  temporiser  by  preference  in  politics, 
save  only  in  army  matters.  In  short,  he  had  in  a  remark- 
able degree  all  the  attractive  qualities  and  all  the  sur- 
face good-nature  of  the  Austrian  of  old  stock,  and  that, 
without  any  doubt  whatever,  was  chiefly  what  endeared 
him  so  greatly  to  his  "liehe  Wiener"  (his  dear  Viennese), 
as  he  invariably  styled  them  in  his  proclamations.  I 
have  heard  stories  about  Francis  Ferdinand,  on  the  other 
hand,  told  me  by  persons  in  his  immediate  service,  which 
explained  his  pronounced  unpopularity  with  the  masses ; 
stories  revealing  him  in  a  decidedly  unamiable  light — 
severe,  harsh,  brusque.  A  couple  of  months  before  his 
violent  death,  while  sojourning  with  his  family  at  his 
exquisitely  beautiful  estate  of  Miramar,  near  Trieste,  a 
small  body  of  sailors  from  an  Austrian  war  vessel  in 
the  harbour  was  despatched  to  serve  on  the  two  motor 
boats  used  for  his  requirements,  and  those  men  were 
strictly  enjoined  not  to  smoke  during  duty  hours — which 
practically  meant  all  day  long.  While  waiting  in  the 
grounds  of  Miramar,  the  archduke  caught,  nevertheless, 
one  of  the  lads  twisting  hurriedly  a  cigarette  and  setting 
it  aglow.  He  not  only  gave  him  at  once  a  terrific  repri- 
mand— talking  to  him,  too,  in  his  own  tongue,  the  Istrian 
dialect  of  Southern  Slavic,  and  using  such  grossly  ver- 
nacular expressions  as  "swine,"  ''beast,"  etc. — but  sent 
him  back  on  board  his  vessel  for  a  fortnight  in  the 
"brig."  The  old  emperor,  if  such  a  thing  had  occurred, 
would  probably  have  laughed  or  treated  the  culprit  to 
one  of  his  own  favourite  cigars — the  "Virginia,"  or 
stogey.  But  this  little  incident  painted  Francis  Ferdi- 
nand strikingly.  He  was  fighting  one  of  the  besetting 
Austrian  sins — for  which  the  Austrians  themselves  have 


SOLUTION  OF  THE  ENIGMA  101 

coined  the  term  ''Schlamperei/'  meaning  lack  of  order, 
of  system,  of  discipline — fighting  it  tooth  and  nail,  be- 
lieving that  only  by  overcoming  it  could  Austria-Hun- 
gary again  rise.  The  manner  of  his  death  again  showed 
what  he  was.  He  had  been  warned  of  widespread  dis- 
affection in  the  border  districts  of  Bosnia  and  Hercego- 
vina,  of  plots  hatched  to  ''remove"  him.  But  he  went 
because  he  deemed  it  his  duty  to  do  so.  And  even  after 
the  first  bomb  had  been  exploded  in  Sarayevo,  right 
under  his  auto,  he  was  not  deterred  from  carrying  out 
what  he  had  set  out  to  do.  He  was  a  man  absolutely 
devoid  of  fear. 

With  the  characteristics  of  Francis  Ferdinand,  as  an 
individual,  the  conspirators  in  Servia  and  Bosnia  had 
little  concern.  What  concerned  them,  and  what  made  his 
''removal"  incumbent,  was  something  else.  In  him,  the 
future  ruler  of  Austria-Hungary,  they  dreaded  the  man 
who  would  undertake,  seriously  undertake,  the  difficult 
mission  of  reconciling  all  the  Southern  Slavs  of  the  mon- 
archy to  the  Habsburg  dominion.  For  he  was  known  by 
them  to  advocate  the  establishment  of  a  Trias  as  the 
sovereign  remedy  for  Slav  disloyalty  and  estrangement. 
He  was  stern,  had  an  iron  will,  perseverance  in  what  once 
he  had  decided  upon,  had  definite,  unshakable  convic- 
tions as  to  the  indispensable  requirements  of  the  Aus- 
tria-Hungary of  the  future.  He  was  just  the  man,  in  a 
word,  that  the  decrepit  monarchy  needed  to  be  set  up 
once  more.  All  that,  however,  the  Servian  plotters  cared 
little  about.  The  circumstance  that  signed  his  death 
warrant  in  Belgrade  was  that  Francis  Ferdinand  stood 
committed  to  the  Trias  idea.  The  Trias  in  Keu  of  the 
Dual  Monarchy.  The  Ausgleich  had  reached,  according 
to  him,  the  end  of  its  usefulness,  and  in  place  of  it  was  to 
come  a  Triple  Monarchy,  a  confederation  of  three  dis- 


102    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

tinct  political  entities ;  each  part  was  to  be  independent 
of  the  others,  save  in  a  few  reserved  points.     These 
reserved  points  were  to  be  confined  to  absolute  essen- 
tials— the  field  of  foreign  relations,  political  and  economic 
treaties,  army  and  navy — in  the  main,  then,  those  pro- 
vided for  in  the  Austrian  compromise  with  Hungary  of 
1867.    Austria  was  to  be  one  third,  Hungary  another, 
and  a  new  South  Slavic  State,  comprising  Croatia,  the 
Banat,  Slavonia,  Bosnia,  Hercegovina,  Istria,  Dalmatia 
and  the  so-called  Littorale  with  Carniola,  the  third.    It 
was  this  conception   (for  which,  however,  the  old  em- 
peror, Francis  Joseph,  had  not  yet  been  won)  which  the 
Servian  hotspurs  and  plotting  patriots  dreaded.    And 
with  reason.     The  idea  itself  had  been  slumbering  for 
years  in  the  subconsciousness  of  the  Servian  race.    Dr. 
Sunaric,  president  of  the  Croatian  Club  in  the  Bosnian- 
Hercegovinian    Sabor  (i.e.,    provincial    chamber),    ex- 
pressed it  some  time  ago  in  a  political  speech  as  follows : 
' '  We  can  no  longer  submit  to  the  fact  that  we  seven  mil- 
lions of  Southern  Slavs  within  the  Austro-Hungarian 
monarchy,  forming  as  we  do  as  Servians,  Croatians  and 
Slovenes  a  linguistic  and  national  unit,  should  enjoy  no 
independence.    We  demand  existence,  under  the  Habs- 
burg  sceptre,  as  an  independent  state.    I  am  even  of 
opinion  that  the  Trialistic  state  idea  might  lead  the  Ser- 
vians now  forming  a  small  realm  of  their  own  to  gravitate 
towards  solidarity  with  us  under  the  crown  of  the  Habs- 
burgs.    Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  of  course,  is  prevented 
from  granting  our  wish  for  the  convening  of  a  Pan-Croa- 
tian conference,  because  he  has  made  oath  upon  the 
constitution  now  in  force,  the  one  of  1867.    But  the  new 
emperor  will  have  a  free  hand  before  himself  swearing 
to  a  constitution  governing  the  whole  monarchy." 
What  this  South  Slavic  leader  outlined,  the  late  heir  to 


SOLUTION  OF  THE  ENIGMA  103 

the  throne,  Francis  Ferdinand,  had  thoroughly  deliber- 
ated upon  and  mentally  digested.  His  plan  contem- 
plated, however,  not  alone  the  consolidation  of  all  the 
Southern  Slavs  of  the  monarchy  within  one  independent 
realm  of  their  own.  It  went  much  farther.  It  intended 
to  reconcile  the  Czechs  of  Bohemia  and  Moravia  by 
granting  them  a  (rather  limited)  autonomy,  about  on 
similar  lines  with  that  obtaining  in  Galicia.  Francis 
Ferdinand,  though  of  purely  Teuton  stock  himself,  was 
known  as  a  Slavophil.  He  not  only  had  mastered  Czech 
completely,  but  had  written  much  in  that  difficult  tongue. 
He  had  likewise  possessed  himself  of  a  familiar  knowl- 
edge of  the  other  Slav  tongues  spoken  in  Austria-Hun- 
gary, and  the  Serbo-Croatian  language  he  spoke  per- 
fectly. It  is,  of  course,  remembered  that  he  fell  in  love 
with  a  Czech  lady  of  noble  lineage,  and  that  she  had 
gained  his  affection  to  the  point  of  his  persisting  in 
marrying  her  against  the  strenuous  opposition  of  his 
uncle  and  sovereign.  For  the  probable  issue  of  this 
union  he  had  been,  under  the  terms  of  the  Austrian  con- 
stitution, obliged  to  resign  all  claims  to  the  throne,  it  is 
true.  But  the  marriage  itself  was  in  all  respects  a  most 
happy  one,  founded  as  it  was  on  true  affection  and  a 
lasting  sense  of  gratitude  on  his  part.  For  at  a  time 
when  his  health  was  low  and,  in  fact,  symptoms  of  in- 
cipient tuberculosis  had  become  apparent,  she  nursed  him 
so  devotedly  and  with  so  much  self-sacrifice  that  his 
recovery  (after  a  stay  in  Egypt)  was  probably  largely 
owing  to  her.  The  union  itself  was  ideal,  and  so  was 
the  fate  that  sped  the  bullets  which  killed,  almost  in- 
stantly and  painlessly,  husband  and  wife  seated  side  by 
side. 

All  the  bonds  that  bound  him,  therefore,  to  the  Slav 
cause,  sentimental  and  political,  aided  in  ripening  in 


104    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

Francis  Ferdinand's  mind  the  plan  of  an  Austro-Hun- 
garian  sweeping  reform  by  establishing  the  Trias  form 
of  government  and  terminating  the  Ausgleich.  Public 
and  private  utterances  of  his  which,  after  his  tragic  end, 
found  their  way  into  some  of  the  leading  censored  Aus- 
trian and  Hungarian  newspapers  and  periodicals,  leave 
no  doubt  that  his  mind  was  fully  made  up  to  the  close 
on  that  score.  But  there  is  just  as  little  doubt,  in  the 
light  of  events  which  the  present  war  has  brought  to  a 
focus,  that  the  life  plan  of  this  remarkable  man,  even  if 
it  had  been  carried  out  in  the  teeth  of  a  determined  Hun- 
garian antagonism,  would  not  have  solved  the  race  prob- 
lem definitely.  The  war  has  stirred  even  sluggish  Aus- 
tria to  its  deeps,  but  if  Francis  Ferdinand  had  lived  and 
war  had  not  broken  out,  it  would  have  gone  different, 
no  doubt.  Hungarian  opposition  to  his  plan — and  it  was 
well-known  to  them  and  had  incited  their  hatred  for  him 
even  before  his  accession, — would  not  have  been  easy, 
almost  impossible,  to  overcome ;  that  much  may  be  taken 
for  granted.  But  suppose  his  plan  had  not  miscarried ; 
suppose  the  Hungarians  had  been  made  to  see  that  the 
Ausgleich,  while  it  had  served  their  o^vn  turn  admirably 
on  the  whole  and  for  a  time,  could  no  longer  endure,  what 
would  have  been  the  result?  For  one  thing,  it  would 
have  left  several  discontented  nationalities.  The  amount 
of  autonomy  which  Francis  Ferdinand  was  ready  to 
concede  to  Bohemia  would  never  have  satisfied  the 
Czechs.  Neither  would  the  three  million  of  Ruthenians 
and  the  two  million  of  Slovaks  have  been  contented.  Nor 
would  the  three  million  of  Germanic  stock  in  Hungary 
(the  Saxons  of  Transylvania,  the  Swabians  of  the  Banat 
and  the  peasant  population  of  the  Zips  region)  or  the 
three  millions  and  a  half  of  Rumanians  in  Hungary  and 
the  Bukovina  been  at  comfort.     The  fact,  rather,  that 


SOLUTION  OF  THE  ENIGMA  105 

one  of  the  hitherto  neglected  races,  the  Southern  Slavs, 
had  been  given  independence  while  they  themselves  were 
to  drag  their  chains  along  even  under  this  new  dispen- 
sation would  have  increased  their  restlessness  tenfold. 
Inevitably,  with  the  example  of  their  brethren  of  the 
South  before  their  eyes,  all  these  submerged  fractions 
and  fragments  of  the  whole  would  have  striven  with  re- 
newed ardour  to  gain  what  had  been  denied  them,  to  gain 
it  forcibly  if  need  be,  by  armed  risings,  by  concerted 
action,  and  the  upshot  would  have  been  civil  war  of  the 
most  horrible  kind. 

No,  well-meaning  as  Archduke  Francis  Ferdinand 
doubtless  was,  fired  by  a  noble  ambition  and  by  a  grave 
sense  of  justice,  his  scheme  did  not  go  far  enough.  The 
only  radical  remedy  for  the  ills  which  race  strife  has  bred 
in  Austria-Hungary  is  self-government  for  each  and 
every  part  of  the  whole.  The  ideal  must,  in  fact,  be  the 
establishment  of  something  like  a  United  States  of  Aus- 
tria-Hungary, only  more  so.  That  is,  the  self-govern- 
ment in  each  state  of  this  prospective  federation  must 
be,  to  accomplish  all  that  is  desired,  more  complete  than 
it  is  in  its  American  prototype.  Common  ties  must  be 
confined  to  a  very  few.  A  historical  survey,  if  that  were 
necessary,  would  soon  show  the  reason  why.  But  I  shall 
mention  merely  one  chief  reason.  The  American  colonies 
when  they  declared  their  independence  of  England  were, 
it  must  be  admitted,  a  group  of  political  entities  but 
loosely  hanging  together,  even  more  loosely  than  do  the 
parts  of  the  Dual  Monarchy  to-day.  They  were  also 
drawn  from  very  heterogeneous  original  sources.  What 
could  be,  for  example,  more  dissimilar  than  the  Puritans 
of  the  Mayflower  and  the  Cavaliers  of  Virginia?  And 
each  of  these  thirteen  original  colonies  had  traits  so 
wholly  setting  it  apart  from  the  others  as  to  make  a 


106    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

union  between  them  at  that  time  seem  folly.  But  there 
was,  nevertheless,  one  potent  tie  between  them  all  that 
the  Austro-Hungarians  of  various  stripe  lack — the  tie 
of  one  common  descent,  of  one  common  tongne,  of  one 
common  law,  of  one  literature,  one  history,  one  set  of 
main  racial  characteristics.  And  this  in  the  end,  against 
all  divergent  interests,  sufficed  to  bring  about  solidarity, 
amalgamation,  the  marvels  of  the  Melting  Pot.  For 
Austria-Hungary  other  reasons  must  be  given  to  be- 
lieve in  the  feasibility  of  such  harmony  in  union.  There 
sentimental  reasons  are  largely  absent ;  but  material  rea- 
sons are  stronger  and  more  pressing. 

It  may  be  expedient  to  analyse  the  conditions  there 
more  closely. 

Austria-Hungary,  as  it  exists  to-day,  contains  one 
entire  nationality,  that  of  the  Magyars,  a  race  politically 
sagacious,  domineering  and  strong  in  organisation,  but 
not  in  itself  numerous  enough  nor  holding  territory  large 
enough  to  stand  on  its  own  bottom,  so  to  speak,  in  these 
days  when  statesmen  of  various  nations  have  begun  to 
''think  in  continents."  So  long  as  the  Magyars  were 
able  to  contrive,  no  matter  if  by  means  scarcely  defen- 
sible, the  denationalisation  of  smaller  races  surrounding 
them  and  welding  them  into  their  own  political  system, 
things  might  go  on  relatively  smoothly.  But  this  brutal 
system  seems  now  to  become  no  longer  feasible.  The 
aroused  national  ego  of  the  smaller  races  forbids  it.  So 
does  the  equally  aroused  conscience  of  the  world  If 
Magyarisation  is  not  possible  any  more,  how  can  the 
Magyar  core  of  Hungary,  thrown  suddenly  on  itself,  hold 
its  own?  How  can  it  make  headway  against  powerful 
neighbours  like  Russia,  or  against  a  consolidated  Ru- 
mania with  a  population  exceeding  its  own  by  fifty  per 
cent.?    The  whole  political  syllabus  of  the  Magyar  as  a 


SOLUTION  OF  THE  ENIGMA  107 

nation  since  1867  has  rested  on  the  unfair  process  of 
despoiling  their  neighbours  and  fellow-dwellers  of  what 
was  dearest  to  them — their  race  soul,  their  language, 
their  national  aspirations.  Once  you  deprive  him  of  the 
chance  to  continue  this  game  ad  infinitum,  you  make  him 
simply  primus  inter  pares,  the  first  among  equals,  no 
longer  the  tyrant  and  oppressor.  Therefore,  the  Magyar 
will  not  yield  up  the  political  and  social  prerogatives  he 
has  enjoyed  so  long  with  impunity  without  a  desperate 
struggle.  But  will  he  prevail?  It  is  more  than  doubt- 
ful. The  forces  that  contend  against  him  are  morally 
very  strong.  For  they  are  composed  not  only  of  the 
strong  desires  of  the  races  he  has  oppressed,  but  also 
of  the  consonance  of  world  opinion.  The  Magyar,  as  I 
said,  is  politically  sagacious.  And  for  that  very  reason 
he  will  be  the  first  to  see  that  his  old  pretensions  are  no 
longer  to  hold  sway;  that  it  may  be  the  part  of  high 
wisdom  to  make  the  best  of  a  poor  bargain.  There  are 
facing  him  alone  on  this  proposition  of  consolidating 
the  Southern  Slavs,  a  body  of  men  almost  as  numerous 
as  his  entire  Magyar  race,  and  nearly  as  desperate  and 
valorous  fighters  in  a  good  cause.  This  seems  to  me, 
briefly  put,  about  the  position  of  the  Magyar  just  as  soon 
as  the  plan  of  granting  complete  autonomy  to  his  helots 
of  hitherto,  the  submerged  races  of  Hungary,  has  fully 
matured  and  is  brought  forw^ard  with  all  the  authority 
and  weight  of  unselfish  patriotism. 

In  this  connection  it  is  necessary  to  quote  a  few  para- 
graphs from  the  recent  throne  speech  of  the  young  Em- 
peror Carl,  May  31,  1917,  in  opening  the  new  session  of 
the  Austrian  parliament,  the  Reichsrat.    In  it  he  said : 

''I  feel  convinced  that  a  happy  development  of  our 
constitutional  life  is  not  possible,  after  the  barren  re- 
sults of  the  last  years  and  under  the  extraordinary  po- 


108    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

litical  conditions  during  times  of  war — leaving  out  of 
consideration  the  Galician  problem,  for  which  my  august 
predecessor  has  already  shown  the  way — ,  without  an 
expansion  of  the  constitution  itself  and  of  the  adminis- 
trative foundations  of  our  entire  public  life  not  alone 
within  the  monarchy  as  a  whole,  but  also  especially  in 
the  separate  kingdoms  and  '  lands, '  foremost  among  them 
in  Bohemia." 

This  declaration  in  itself  is  very  significant,  as  it  fore- 
shadows in  a  manner  not  to  be  mistaken  the  plan  of  en- 
larging the  functions,  rights  and  privileges  of  each  com- 
ponent part  of  the  monarchy,  and  of  apportioning  to  each 
a  larger  measure  of  independence  and  a  more  pronounced 
separate  existence  than  they  have  so  far  enjoyed.  While 
scarcely  specific  enough  to  enable  the  reader  to  erect  an 
articulate  political  structure,  the  young  ruler  has  gone 
about  as  far  in  outlining  it  as  is  possible  in  a  speech 
from  the  throne.  Such  a  speech  is  merely  to  serve  as  a 
finger  post.  Details  have  there  no  place.  But  the  pur- 
port of  the  above  passage  is  plain  enough.  However, 
his  enunciation  gains  in  vividness  and  meaning  if  it  is 
supplemented  by  another  statement  of  his  that  occurs 
towards  the  end  of  it.  He  there  declared  that  while 
under  normal  conditions  he  should  be  ready  to  make  oath 
to  the  constitution  actually  in  force,  under  the  peculiar 
circumstances  he  should  be  obliged  ''to  defer  that  solemn 
ceremony  until  a  time  which  I  trust  will  not  be  remote, 
a  time  wdien  the  foundations  for  a  new,  a  strong  and 
happy  Austria,  invigourated  both  internally  and  exter- 
nally, shall  have  been  laid  for  generations  to  come." 

This,  then,  coupled  with  the  preceding  passage,  ex- 
presses the  intention  plainly  enough  to  recast  the  whole 
frame  within  which  the  political  life  of  Austria  has  been 
enclosed  for  the  past  two  generations. 


SOLUTION  OF  THE  ENIGMA  109 

It  shows  clearly  that  the  young  monarch  fully  realises 
that  he  has  come  to  a  parting  of  the  ways,  and  that  the 
old  order  of  things  cannot  and  will  not  be  further  main- 
tained. Doubtless  he  also  feels  that  it  is  a  bold  experi- 
ment he  is  resolved  upon,  but  one  that  must  be  dared. 
Aged  Francis  Joseph  had  no  longer  the  elasticity  of 
mind,  the  vigour  of  body,  to  have  braved  fate  in  that  way, 
to  venture  on  an  untrodden  path.  For  such  it  is.  In  all 
modem  history  there  is  no  parallel  for  such  a  projected 
rebirth  of  an  ancient  country  as  is  here  sketched,  how- 
ever briefly  and  dimly,  by  this  ruler  of  inexperience,  yet 
undeniably  imbued  with  the  best  motives.  Youth  is 
venturesome.  But  it  will  be  one  of  the  most  astounding 
lessons  of  the  longevity  and  indestructibility  of  seem- 
ingly outworn  political  entities  if  the  experiment  should, 
after  all,  succeed. 

For  Austria  the  future  status  both  of  Bohemia  and  of 
Galicia  remains  to  be  fixed  as  the  task  beset  with  most 
difficulties.  And  to  both  these  countries  Emperor  Carl 
referred  particularly  in  his  enunciation.  They  are  hard 
nuts  to  crack,  truly.  As  to  Galicia  we  have  got  an  ink- 
ling of  this  before.  The  population  there,  in  round 
figures  eight  millions,  is  made  up  about  as  follows :  In 
the  western  half,  including  Cracow,  the  purely  Polish 
element  is  settled,  about  four  millions;  in  the  eastern 
with  Lemberg  for  capital,  the  Ukrainian,  or  Ruthenian, 
exceeding  three  millions;  Jews  everywhere,  about 
750,000;  and  the  remainder,  men  of  Teutonic  strain,  as 
officials,  in  some  small  colonies,  as  professional  men, 
merchants,  engineers,  managers,  manufacturers.  The 
Ruthenian  element  is,  generally  speaking,  wretchedly 
poor  and  ignorant,  gravitating  more  or  less  towards  their 
kinsmen,  the  Ukrainians,  on  Russian  soil,  Greek  orthodox 
in  faith,  and  although  a  people  of  infinite  patience,  honey- 


110    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

combed  with  disloyalty,  discontent,  with  strong  aversion 
towards  their  Polish  masters.  The  Poles  own  seven- 
eighths  of  the  soil.  Even  in  the  Ruthenian,  the  eastern, 
part  of  the  province,  the  Poles  are  lords  paramount,  in 
possession  of  vast  and  princely  estates,  frequently  given 
to  absenteeism,  spending  their  revenues  very  often  at  the 
international  gaming  tables  of  Monte  Carlo  and  else- 
where ;  mostly  highly  educated,  used  to  material  luxury 
and  despising  the  subject  race  that  believes  in  gods  of 
its  own.  There  have  been  risings  of  the  oppressed 
Ruthenian  peasantry  now  and  then;  they  were  always 
drowned  in  blood.  As  to  the  economic  conditions  pre- 
vailing in  Galicia  fuU  official  figures  are  available.  They 
have,  besides,  often  been  ventilated  in  the  Reichsrat,  the 
Austrian  parliament.  One  of  the  most  influential  leaders 
of  the  Ruthenians  in  that  body  stated  it  publicly — and 
supported  his  statement  with  incontrovertible  proof — 
that  his  people  are  living  in  almost  incredible  squalor, 
and  that  many  thousands  of  them  would  starve  annually 
if  their  kindred  beyond  the  sea — husbands,  fathers,  sons 
— did  not  regularly  send  over  remittances  from  their 
savings.  He  showed  how  the  average  Ruthenian  peasant 
family  numbers  seven,  and  how  they  are  supposed  to 
make  a  living  out  of  a  farm  embracing  about  four  to 
five  acres  of  arable  land.  Their  dwelling  is  in  most 
cases  a  self -erected  hovel  made  of  sun-baked  clay,  shelter- 
ing, besides,  the  horse  or  cow,  chickens,  pigs,  etc.  It  is 
here,  too,  that  illiteracy  predominates  with  from  62  to 
78  per  cent,  of  the  total.  The  war  has  roused  these  poor 
people.  They  demand  human  rights.  They  demand  the 
ballot  (practically  withheld  from  them  by  Polish  intimi- 
dation or  bribery),  and  they  demand  adequate  repre- 
sentation not  only  in  the  Reichsrat,  where  they,  although 
nearly  composing  the  half  of  the  population,  are  now 


SOLUTION  OF  THE  ENIGMA  111 

outnumbered  five  to  one  by  the  Poles,  but  in  the  pro- 
vincial chamber  as  well.  The  disaffection  of  the  Ru- 
thenian  population  in  Galicia  made  itself  unpleasantly 
felt  for  Austria  during  the  war.  There  was  much  pro- 
Russian  espionage.  Austrian  officers  told  me  that  in 
the  early  part  of  the  war  they  had  to  suffer  more  from 
that  than  from  the  invading  Russian  armies.  There  was 
a  time  when  hundreds  of  Ruthenian  spies  were  sent  to 
the  gallows  every  day  in  Galicia.  The  Poles  are,  how- 
ever, the  masters  in  Galicia,  and  they  dread,  even  the 
fair-minded  among  them,  the  advent  of  the  day  when 
the  Ruthenians  will  insist  on  the  right  to  cast  an  un- 
trammelled vote.  They  dread  it  not  alone  as  ushering  in 
the  end  of  Polish  sway  throughout  Galicia  and  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  Ruthenians  from  their  old-time  yoke,  but 
just  as  much  because  of  the  dense  ignorance  of  these 
men  which  in  their  opinion  would  bode  no  good  to  the 
welfare  of  the  province  as  a  whole.  Hitherto  and  for 
the  past  fifty  years  the  Austrian  government  has  had,  at 
every  crisis,  the  united  support  of  the  Polish  delegation 
in  the  Reichsrat,  in  exchange  for  allowing  them  to  man- 
age their  political  home  affairs  in  any  manner  they 
pleased.  Now,  however,  with  the  coming  of  the  new 
emperor  and  with  the  altered  conditions  brought  on  by 
the  war,  some  measure  of  justice  is  to  be  meted  out  to 
the  Ruthenians.  This  has  tremendously  stirred  the 
Poles  who  threaten  to  break  from  their  allegiance  to  the 
government,  even  to  the  dynasty.  To  insure  a  renewed 
loyalty  on  the  part  of  the  Ruthenians,  besides,  other  sac- 
rifices and  measures,  in  particular  a  distribution  of  land, 
are  called  for.  Altogether  the  situation  of  Galicia  is — 
no  matter  how  the  question  of  a  re-established  and,  pos- 
sibly, a  reunited  Poland  be  finally  solved — complicated 


112    AUSTRIA-HUNG AEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

and  full  of  danger.    It  urgently  demands  wise  states- 
manship. 

Then  there  is  the  Bohemian  problem.  If  anything  that 
is  even  more  involved  and  of  much  longer  standing.  To 
bring  about  a  compromise  which  would  moderately 
satisfy  both  parties,  the  Czech  and  the  Teuton  Bohe- 
mian, seems  out  of  the  reach  of  human  power.  The  very 
fact  that  the  adversaries  are  so  well  matched  in  all  but 
one  respect  (that  being  in  numbers,  in  which,  as  we 
know,  the  Czechs  with  their  four  millions  far  outbalance 
the  German  Bohemians  with  two  millions  and  a  half), 
makes  adjustment  all  the  harder.  Bohemia  wants  full 
autonomy  (save  in  the  two  or  three  points  where  she 
must  go  together  with  the  rest  of  the  monarchy),  and 
nothing  short  of  it  will  content  her.  She  wants,  above 
all,  a  perfectly  free  hand  in  internal  affairs,  such  as  the 
Poles  have  had  in  Galicia,  and  she  wants  it  in  precisely 
the  same  way  and  for  a  similar  purpose.  That  purpose 
being  to  oust  the  German  tongue  completely  from  public 
use  and,  as  soon  as  may  be,  from  private  use  as  well.  She 
wants  to  denationalise  the  German  Bohemians,  in  other 
words,  and  erect  a  Czech  supremacy  in  Bohemia  so  strong 
and  so  backed  up  by  all  the  agencies  of  civil  power  as  to 
stabilise  it  forever.  That  is  their  programme.  They  are 
no  longer  satisfied  with  equal  rights.  They  intend  to 
seize  all  the  rights.  This,  of  course,  looked  at  as  a  merely 
retaliatory  step  for  injustice  done  them  in  times  gone,  is 
easily  understood  from  a  Czech  viewpoint.  But  un- 
questionably if  two  wrongs  do  not  make  one  right,  this 
policy  is  to  be  condemned.  And  to  find  a  way  out  of  the 
whole  labyrinth  of  puzzling  contradictions  would  seem 
indeed  an  almost  superhuman  achievement.  It  will  be 
of  great  interest  to  watch  from  afar  the  great  decisive 
battle  which  has  now  set  in  for  Bohemia. 


SOLUTION  OF  THE  ENIGMA  113 

In  Hungary,  it  may  be  said,  the  great  figlit  of  read- 
justment is  also  on.  The  fall  of  Count  Stephen  Tisza 
from  power  marked  the  first  clash.  For  that  was  owing 
to  the  reluctance  of  that  statesman  and  of  the  hitherto 
ruling  party — the  party  of  National  Labour — to  grant 
legislation  widening  the  scope  of  sutfrage.  He  and  those 
around  him  are  afraid  that  to  eliminate  the  restrictions 
in  force,  confining  the  right  to  vote  to  those  possessing  a 
minimum  of  property  and  education,  and  paying  a  min- 
imum of  taxes,  will  mean  the  dispossession  of  the  Magyar 
from  his  controlling  influence  over  the  realm.  These  re- 
strictions have  permitted  him,  although  but  a  minority, 
to  elect  a  majority  of  members  into  the  Hungarian  par- 
liament and  most  of  the  district  and  provincial  chambers, 
thereby  dominating  legislation  and  the  whole  political 
existence  of  the  country.  The  new  King  of  Hungary, 
however,  has  sided  with  the  more  progressive  and  less 
selfish  parties  in  Hungary,  those  favouring  thorough 
election  reform  and  fairer  treatment  of  the  subject  races. 
Delicate  negotiations  are  now  proceeding  which  will 
probably  culminate  in  a  more  liberal  era  for  Hungary. 
The  crux  of  the  situation  is,  of  course,  the  attitude  of  the 
South  Slavs.  If  Hungary  consents  to  a  complete  separa- 
tion for  Croatia,  and  the  creation  of  a  South  Slavic  state 
in  which  the  other  Serbo-Croats  will  enter,  an  enormous 
amount  of  dangerous  and  constant  internal  friction  would 
terminate.  Without  that,  however,  it  could  not  be  truth- 
fully averred  that  a  satisfactory  solution  has  been  found. 

If  these  things  come  to  pass  which  I  have  here  but 
roughly  sketched  it  is  indeed  possible  to  make  Austria- 
Hungary,  so  long  one  of  the  political  eyesores  of  the 
world,  once  more  a  vital  factor.  It  would,  for  the  first 
time  in  the  troubled  history  of  the  old  monarchy,  set 
really  free  the  inherent  forces  for  good  in  all  these  con- 


114    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

glomerate  regions.  It  would  liberate  an  amount  of  ver- 
satile talent  so  far  hidden  away  in  the  dark,  of  artistic 
and  industrial  gifts  scarcely  dreamt  of.  And  it  would 
indeed  mean,  as  the  young  emperor  recently  phrased  it : 
a  happier  and  more  prosperous  population.  Which 
would  also  mean  a  distinct  gain  for  the  world. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

POLITICAL  LIFE 

Sharp  separation  between  Austria  a"nd  Hungary — The  whole  political 
foundation  of  Hungary  radically  differs  from  that  of  Austria — 
Two  parliamentary  sessions  witnessed — In  the  Austrian  Reichsrat 
a  total  absence  of  dignity — In  the  Hungarian  Chamber  of  Deputies 
an  air  of  ardent  patriotism — Hungary  has  a  broad  aristocratic 
l)ase — Austria  on  the  other  hand  has  always  looked  to  the  Dynasty 
for  its  political  advance — In  Austria  the  time-honoured  motto  has 
been,  Divide  et  Impera — In  Austria  the  Slavic  communism  and 
broad  democracy  running  counter  to  the  Germanic  fealty  to  a  leader 
and  authoritative  interpretation — In  both  countries  the  bitterest 
problems  are  adjustment  of  languages,  of  administration — Differ- 
ences in  the  parliamentary  rules  between  Austria  and  Hungary — 
In  the  latter  now  the  franchise  extension  question — Narrow  and 
broad  nationalism — How  the  Ausgleich  works,  both  politically  and 
economically — Hungarian  dreams  of  industrial  efficiency. 

In  all  comment  on  the  political  life  of  the  Dual  Mon- 
archy the  sharp  cleavage  between  the  life,  aims  and 
methods  of  the  two  halves,  of  Austria  and  of  Hungary, 
must  be  kept  in  view.  Nothing,  for  example,  could  be 
more  strikingly  dissimilar  than  an  average  session  of  the 
Reichsrat  in  Vienna  and  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in 
Budapest. 

The  structures  in  which  the  two  legislative  bodies  are 
housed  are  both  fine  and  impressive.  The  one  in  Buda- 
pest, standing  close  to  the  banks  of  the  mighty  Danube 
River,  is  evidently  modelled  after  Westminster  in  Lon- 
don ;  it  rises  in  its  white  beauty  and  in  its  graceful  spires 

115 


116    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

skyward  in  variegated  splendour.  The  one  in  Vienna  is 
as  tliough  it  had  been  transplanted  from  the  rocks  of 
Parthenon — classical  in  outline,  covering  great  surface 
but  of  medium  height,  ornate  with  bronze  sculptures  of 
Athenian  grace  and  suppleness,  an  ancient  temple  de- 
voted to  the  adoration  of  the  gods.  But  which  gods? 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  Eris,  the  goddess  of  discord,  has 
been  worshipped  most  there. 

Vividly  I  recall  the  last  visit  I  paid  this  transcend- 
ently  stately  pile.  It  was  in  March,  1914.  There  was  no 
ceremonial  barrier  to  overcome.  The  doorkeeper  in  his 
mediaeval  glory  of  tinsel  and  silver-tipped  staff  willingly 
let  me  pass.  He  may  have  thought  that  no  stranger 
could  eclipse  the  noise  and  confusion  prevailing  inside. 
For  it  was  at  the  height  of  the  obstructionist  tactics  em- 
braced by  the  opposition  that  I  sought  admission.  If 
Pope's  lines:  For  forms  of  government  let  fools  con- 
test; What's  best  administered  is  best,  ever  was  true, 
surely  it  did  not  apply  to  Austria  and  its  parliament. 
For  there  is  a  total  absence  of  dignity  and  efficiency 
there,  and  the  bulk  of  the  500  delegates  or  thereabouts 
whom  I  saw  on  entering  the  press  gallery  looked  and 
behaved  like  a  band  of  madmen.  It  was  a  question  about 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  one  of  the  eight  officially 
recognised  ''national  tongues,"  I  think  it  was  Ruthenian, 
that  had  wrought  them  all  to  such  a  fearful  pitch.  It 
was,  I  believe,  a  question  which  to  an  outsider  appeared 
of  minor  importance.  But  to  these  men  in  the  fore- 
ground of  the  immense  hall  it  must  have  seemed  a  ques- 
tion of  life  and  death.  This  is  what  burst  on  my  aston- 
ished view:  About  a  score  of  men,  all  decently  clad, 
were  seated  or  standing  each  at  his  little  desk.  Some 
made  an  infernal  noise  violently  opening  and  shutting 
the  lids  of  these  desks.     Others  emitted  a  blaring  sound 


POLITICAL  LIFE  117 

from  little  toy  trumpets;  others  strummed  jew's-harps; 
still  others  beat  snare  drums.  And  at  their  head,  like 
a  bandmaster,  stood  a  grey-bearded  man  of  about  65, 
evidently  the  leader  of  this  wilful  faction,  directing  the 
whole  pandemonium  in  volume  and  in  tempo.  The  sum 
of  uproar  thus  produced  was  so  infernal  that  it  com- 
pletely drowned  the  voice  of  a  man  who  was  evidently 
talking  from  his  seat  in  another  part  of  the  house,  for 
one  could  see  his  lips  moving  and  the  veins  in  his  tem- 
ples swelling.  Bedlam  let  loose!  That  was  the  im- 
pression on  the  whole.  The  obstructionist  tactics,  which 
I  happened  to  witness  at  their  zenith,  were  being  car- 
ried out  with  the  declared  intention  of  overcoming  the 
resistance  to  the  measure  advocated  by  the  little  minority 
of  Ruthenian  delegates.  After  listening  to  this  infernal 
concert  for  a  brief  spell,  in  fact  until  my  nerves  gave 
way,  I  inquired  outside  and  heard  the  matter  stated  as 
I  described  it.  I  was  told  that  not  only  this  Ruthenian 
fraction,  but  every  other  in  the  Reichsrat  as  well,  in  its 
fraction  and  committee  rooms  had  stowed  away,  in  a 
locked  and  safe  place,  a  complete  assortment  of  such 
instruments  of  torture — whistles  and  bell  sleighs,  mouth 
harmonicas,  cow  bells  and  trombones,  specially  manu- 
factured noise-producers  warranted  to  overtop  every- 
thing, etc.,  etc.  Each  party,  each  fraction,  each  faction, 
each  individual  delegate  owned  an  arsenal  of  these 
things,  merely  for  the  purpose  of  making  all  legitimate 
business  in  the  Reichsrat  impossible,  at  the  mere  whim 
of  one  or  a  set  of  those  ''representatives"  of  the  Aus- 
trian people.     Strange  but  true. 

It  was,  I  think,  Sydney  Smith — or  some  other  witty 
Englishman — who  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  the  "solemn 
ass"  was  the  most  unbearable  of  the  human  species.  If 
so,  Austria  is  well  off  in  that  respect.    Asses  there  are, 


118    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

plenty  of  tliem,  both  bipeds  and  quadrupeds — ^but 
''solemn"  asses — no,  never.  Not  one.  Such  an  utter 
lack  of  dignity  I  have  not  encountered  in  any  other  par- 
liament of  the  world.  There  is  no  mace-bearer  there. 
No  ' '  naming  of  names ' ' — that  dread  threat  in  the  Amer- 
ican Congress.  No  cry  of  "I  spy  a  stranger!"  All  this 
would  be  of  no  avail  in  the  Austrian  parliament.  There 
they  throw  inkwells  at  one  another;  hold  their  fists  in 
close  proximity  to  their  neighbour's  proboscis;  call  not 
only  names,  but  very  foul  names.  The  "speaker" — 
here  they  call  him  the  president — ^is  inured  to  all  this. 
It  leaves  him  cold.  And  he  has  absolutely  no  authority, 
no  power  to  control  or  prevent  all  this;  he  cannot  stop 
any  of  these  outrages.  When  he  intends  to  call  any 
member  to  order,  to  rebuke  any  one,  or  to  deprive  him 
of  the  word — he  is  at  once  outshouted  and  his  plan  is 
frustrated.  The  only  practical  remedy  he  has  is  to 
suspend  the  session,  and  that,  as  a  rule,  is  usually  pre- 
cisely the  thing  that  the  obstructionist  or  obstructionists 
wanted.  It  is  this  utter  lack  of  authority  of  the  pre- 
siding officer  of  the  Reichsrat  that  is  responsible  for 
the  success  of  all  the  innumerable  obstructionist  cam- 
paigns waged  there  in  the  past.  It  is  because  of  this 
that  at  the  recent  reconvening  of  the  Reichsrat  (after 
a  lapse  of  more  than  three  years)  one  of  the  chief  items 
in  the  outlined  programme  of  reform  was  the  thorough 
alteration  in  the  code  of  parliamentary  rules,  rules  that 
have  obtained  unchanged  for  more  than  a  generation. 
It  has  been  anarchy  systematised. 

Now,  in  the  Hungarian  parliament  things  proceed 
exactly  in  the  opposite  way.  Count  Stephen  Tisza,  the 
"man  of  iron"  as  he  was  called,  while  majority  leader 
and  premier  during  the  most  troublous  period  of  the  war 
and  some  time  before,  carried  on  a  regiment  of  Spartan 


POLITICAL  LIFE  119. 

discipline.  On  one  occasion,  when  the  opposition  be- 
came so  boisterous  as  to  make  business  impossible,  he 
called  on  the  ''parliamentary  guard,"  a  small  but  effec- 
tive military  body  that  had  taken  the  oath  of  blind 
obedience  to  the  speaker,  and  pointed  to  a  small  group 
of  inveterate  obstructionists.  And  when  these  would 
not  yield,  Tisza  gave  another  significant  nod,  and  the 
guards  drew  their  sabres  and  prepared  for  slaughter. 
Then  the  most  obstinate  gave  way.  In  the  midst  of  the 
war  I  witnessed  a  stormy  session  of  the  Hungarian  Cham- 
ber. A  great  onslaught  had  been  made  on  Tisza  by  his 
ablest  foe.  Count  Julius  Andrassy,  the  leader  of  the 
great  Constitutionalist  Party,  and  that  had  been  followed 
by  further  attacks  made  by  Karolyi  and  Apponyi,  who 
charged  the  statesmen  in  power  with  reactionism  in  with- 
holding the  franchise  even  from  the  defenders  of  the 
country.  The  air  was  at  white  heat.  An  electric  spark 
would  have  set  it  ablaze.  But  Tisza  faced  his  foes  like 
a  lion.  He  bore  the  brunt  of  the  spirited  debate  that 
followed.  No  insulting  epithet  fell  from  the  lips  of  any 
of  the  speakers.  Tisza 's  henchmen  were  like  a  Eoman 
cohort.  No  break  could  be  made  in  their  ranks.  They 
stood  to  their  doughty  leader  like  good  men  and  true. 
The  magic  of  numbers  was  with  them,  and  they  knew  it. 
And  victory  perched  on  their  banners.  All  done  by  and 
within  strictly  constitutional  methods.  And  throughout 
one  could  feel  that  all  these  men,  determined  opponents 
though  they  were  to  the  stern  premier  who  was  not  their 
choice,  remained  Hungarian  patriots,  loyal  to  the  core 
to  the  country  of  their  birth,  content  to  accomplish  what 
they  could  by  strictly  parliamentary  means — all  Hun- 
garians in  fact.  By  contrast  what  a  humiliating  spec- 
tacle did  the  Reichsrat  of  Austria  offer  to  view !  There 
the  men  of  each  little  province,  of  each  section  of  a  prov- 


120    AUSTRIA-HUNG AI^Y:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

ince,  thought  only  of  that  and  let  the  remainder  go  by 
the  board. 

The  contrast  typifies  the  peculiar  character  of  each 
half  of  the  Dual  Monarchy.  Let  us  see.  Hungary  is 
built  up  historically  from  a  broad  aristocratic  basis. 
From  days  immemorial  the  lower  nobility  has  been  (and 
still  is)  the  backbone  of  the  nation.  But  not  a  nobility 
in  the  sense  as  elsewhere,  not  a  relatively  small  class 
enjoying  privileges  earned  by  time-serving  truckling  to 
the  whims  and  pastimes  of  pampered  sovereigns.  No. 
The  nobility  of  Hungary  from  the  first  was  the  fighting 
portion  of  the  nation.  In  award  for  the  obligation  to 
fight  the  battles  of  the  country  with  all  their  sons  and 
all  their  men,  each  of  these  members  of  a  race  of  con- 
querors was  given  a  freehold  for  himself  and  his  de- 
scendants. The  scions  of  these  original  nobles  still  form 
that  part  of  the  population  who  own  the  soil,  and  who 
mostly  till  it,  too.  The  initial  freehold  has  been  shrinking 
in  size;  or  rather,  it  has  been  divided  and  subdivided, 
share  and  share  alike,  among  children  and  children's  chil- 
dren, each  son  remaining  noble,  each  son  bearing  the  name 
and  title  of  his  ancestors.  Much  church  land,  it  is  true, 
much  land  once  belonging  to  the  crown  or  to  some  munic- 
ipality has  been  acquired  by  these  nobles  in  the  course 
of  centuries,  thus  doubling  and  trebling  perhaps  the 
mass  of  it  in  bulk.  But,  on  the  whole,  each  member  of 
this  primitive,  soil-bound,  vigorous  and  warlike  lower 
nobility  owns  a  small  estate,  be  it  only  fifty  or  be  it  five 
hundred  acres,  that  he  cultivates  and  whence  he  draws  his 
sustenance,  dwelling  on  his  own  soil  and  dying  on  it, 
leaving  his  patrimony  undiminished.  A  sort  of  farmer- 
nobility,  in  fact.  That,  as  I  say,  is  the  backbone  of  Hun- 
gary even  to-day.  It  is  these  men  who  have  made  Hun- 
gary what  it  is,  and  who  keep  it  so.     Of  course,  there 


POLITICAL  LIFE  121 

are  other  elements  in  modern  Hungary.  There  is  not 
alone  a  j)owerful  higher  nobility,  wealthy  beyond  the 
dreams  of  avarice  and  owning  estates  so  large  that  they 
can  drive  with  a  fast  team  all  day  long  without  leaving 
their  own  acres.  There  are  now  numerous  prospering 
and  populous  towns  and  cities,  with  commerce  and  an 
industry  steadily  growing  under  the  fostering  care  of 
Hungary's  statesmen.  There  are  thousands  of  villages 
tenanted  to-day  by  a  free  peasantry  and  rural  labouring- 
element  more  or  less  dependent  on  the  nearest  lords  of 
the  soil,  whose  serfs  they  were  until  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  But  the  rural  nobility,  the  farmer- 
nobility,  so  to  speak,  is  still  the  rock  bottom  of  the  nation ; 
those  smaller  noblemen  of  moderate  means,  too,  dictate 
in  the  last  place  the  politics  of  Hungary.  They  are  an 
unsophisticated,  narrow-horizoned  lot,  but  they  are  also 
men  of  hard  common  sense  who  keep  a  sharp  lookout  on 
the  destinies  of  the  country.  The  heart  of  this  abori- 
ginal Hungary  is  the  Alfold,  the  low-lying,  alluvial  plain 
forming  the  most  fertile  portion  of  the  whole,  rich  in 
black  humus  and  heavy  wheat  and  corn  land,  whence  fab- 
ulous crops  are  drawn,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  re- 
gions of  Europe  in  intrinsic  wealth  and  productiveness. 
The  other  sections  of  Hungary  group  themselves  around 
the  Alfold.  They  are  adjuncts,  not  only  racially  (as  they 
are  inhabited  by  Slovaks  and  men  of  Teutonic  stock,  by 
Serbians  in  the  South  and  Croatians,  by  Eumanians  in 
Transylvania,  etc.),  but  economically  as  well.  The  heart 
that  is  pumping  perennially  fresh  rich  blood  into  the 
veins  of  the  country  is  the  Alfold.  That  is  the  real  Hun- 
gary. And  there,  too,  you  still  find  Hungarian  life  in  all 
its  picturesqueness,  in  its  pristine  virtues  of  hospitality 
and  valour  and  strong  patriotism.  There  you  find  the 
primeval  csikos,  the  horseherd.    The  Bakony  Forest  with 


122    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

its  immense  droves  of  savage  swine  is  no  more,  and  wheat 
fields  are  bobbing  in  the  breeze  instead — but  the  village- 
studded  region  is  still  as  distinctively  Magyar  as  it  was 
centuries  ago. 

Thus  in  its  core  Hungaiy  is  yet  a  bucolic  country, 
resting  safely  on  its  foundation  of  vigorous  lower  no- 
bility, a  land  of  rustics  with  all  the  good  and  bad  points 
of  these.  Above  all,  a  self-reliant  land  with  a  liberty- 
loving,  an  independence-loving  population.  And  this  is 
true  even  of  the  cities.  Nay,  more.  Even  the  Jews  of 
Hungary — about  one  million  of  them  there  are — ^have 
imbibed  something  of  that  spirit.  They  are  not  timid, 
cringing  creatures  as  in  Russia.  They,  too,  are  free- 
men, with  the  courage  and  self-respect  of  freemen.  The 
Magyar  values  them  exactly  for  what  they  are,  and  does 
not  inquire  into  their  creed  or  parentage  and  antece- 
dents. That  is  why  in  Hungary  there  are  so  many 
valiant,  patriotic  Jews. 

But  now  look  at  Austria.  There  the  population  is 
predominantly  Slavic — about  two  to  one,  roughly  speak- 
ing. These  Slavs,  from  the  very  nature  of  their  becom- 
ing Austrians,  the  exact  manner  of  which  has  been  de- 
scribed elsewhere,  cannot  have  much  of  that  sentiment 
denominated  patriotism.  To  acquire  that  there  w^as 
neither  time  nor  opportunity.  Divide  et  impera  has 
been  the  old  Habsburg  motto  as  to  them;  to  play  off  one 
against  the  other.  Remnants  of  former  more  or  less 
powerful  Slav  states,  cowed  and  under  the  domination 
of  their  priesthood,  their  inevitable  destiny  it  was  to 
become  provincial  in  their  thoughts  and  aspirations. 
Again  attention  must  be  called  to  the  undeniable  historic 
and  ethnologic  fact  that  the  Slav  does  not  seem  to  be 
gifted  as  a  state-builder.  Of  course,  Russia  will  be  at 
once   pointed   to  in   refutation.     But   on   the   contrary, 


POLITICAL  LIFE  123 

Russia  proves  the  contention.  Russia,  when  left  to  her- 
self, was  a  jumble  of  small,  impotent  states,  a  number  of 
them,  like  Pskov,  Nizhni  Novgorod,  Ryiisan,  etc.,  half- 
communistic  republics.  They  were  knocked  into  a  heap 
by  the  invading  Mongolians,  and  for  a  number  of  cen- 
turies Slavic  Russia  was  under  the  heel  of  the  Golden 
Horde,  fawning,  submitting.  And  even  when,  under 
Ivan  the  Terrible,  Muscovy  forged  to  the  front  she  had 
again  to  battle  for  many  years  of  dissension  against  the 
Polish  yoke,  until  she  herself  came  under  the  knout  of  a 
native  set  of  despots,  the  Romanoffs,  upset  at  last  in  a 
night.  And  now  once  more  Russia  is  plunged  into  chaos, 
with  the  old  tendency  uppermost  of  splitting  into  innu- 
merable tiny  units,  with  the  ancient  spirit  of  village 
communism,  the  niir,  cropping  out  to  the  surface. 

So,  too,  it  has  been  with  the  Slavs  of  Austria.  What 
elsewhere  is  love  of  country,  a  love  of  country  as  large 
and  as  powerful  and  as  uniform  as  circumstances  permit, 
is  with  the  Slav  the  love  of  his  narrow-bound  home,  of 
his  province,  his  town,  his  commune.  Under  such  a 
system  the  Slav  rests  content.  Bohemia  was  content 
with  it  until  at  the  time  of  Boleslav  the  Cruel  the  judges 
of  her  zu2)a  (her  village  councils)  ceased  to  be  elective. 
None  of  the  Slav  empires  could  live  for  long.  The  Slav 
seems  to  see  his  ideal  of  government  in  the  small  unit, 
in  the  village  commune.  This  has  been  evident  from 
the  remotest  historic  times.  To  oppose  the  stronger 
Germanic  will  for  a  powerful  and  efficient  state  suprem- 
acy the  Slav  had  nothing  but  his  affection  for  his  native 
section.  The  only  effective  link  tying  him  to  Austria 
was,  and  is,  the  dynasty.  That  he  has  looked  upon,  when 
everything  else  failed,  as  something  attaching  to  him 
personally.  He  has  so  regarded  it  for  centuries.  What 
he  received  out  of  the  hands  of  this  dynasty  in  the  way 


124    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

of  an  amelioration  of  his  political  or  economic  condition 
he  has  taken  as  a  welcome  gift.  Independence,  free  insti- 
tutions he  has  (with  one  or  two  notable  exceptions)  not 
striven  for  as  things  in  themselves  desirable,  but  at  most 
as  things  benefiting  his  province,  his  village,  and  solely 
and  inalienably  tied  up  with  the  latter.  No  bond  of  com- 
mon descent,  no  admiration  for  superior  prowess  has 
leagued  the  Slav  peasant  or  serf  with  the  nobles  and  big 
landholders  of  his  native  province.  In  large  proportion 
these  nobles  were  not  even  of  his  race,  and  in  everything 
he  had  little  or  nothing  in  common  with  them.  Besides, 
where  the  Magyar  is  a  natural  aristocrat,  tempered  only 
in  this  feeling  by  his  natural  love  of  freedom  and  his 
sense  of  fairness  and  justice,  the  Slav  is  by  natural  pro- 
clivity a  broad  democrat,  regarding  all  as  his  brothers, 
a  communist  almost.  The  sacredness  of  private  prop- 
erty ownership  is  a  sentiment  to  which  the  Slav  soul 
responds  but  feebly. 

Set  against  this  the  chief  characteristics  of  his  fellow- 
Austrians  of  Teutonic  stock — their  strict  ideas  of  private 
ownership;  their  fealty  to  the  leader;  their  meticulous 
sense  of  order,  cleanliness,  system — all  conceptions  for- 
eign to  the  Slav  of  pure  lineage.  That  the  Czechs  in 
some  of  these  respects  are  exceptions  must  be  referred 
to — and  are  striking  proofs  of  the  fact — their  long  and 
intimate  relations  with  their  Germanic  neighbours. 

But  after  all,  practically  there  are  two  points  of  strong 
resemblance  in  the  political  life  of  Austria  and  of  Hun- 
gary. In  both  countries  the  knottiest  problems  are  those 
of  language  and  race.  To  these,  internally,  everything 
else  is  subordinated.  The  whole  mechanism  of  adminis- 
tration turns  on  this.  As  in  Austria,  in  Hungary  also 
the  attempt  has  been  made,  not  as  an  experiment  but  as 
the  cornerstone  of  the  whole  internal  polity,  to  rule  a 


POLITICAL  LIFE  125 

mimerical  majority  by  a  minority.  This  has  been  done 
for  a  long  time,  in  most  instances  and  for  most  provinces 
for  centuries,  and  for  the  past  fifty  years  it  has  been 
done  under  cover  of  popular  government,  by  the  aid  of 
a  cleverly  manipulated  parliamentary  system,  one  that 
gave  the  shadow  but  not  the  substance.  These,  then,  are 
the  points  in  common  in  the  political  life  of  Austria  and 
Hungary.  But  while  thus  a  bond,  in  a  sense  even  a  unity 
of  purpose,  is  created  between  the  Teutonic  Austrians 
and  the  Magyar  Hungarians,  one  which  goes  so  far  as 
to  overcome  the  otherwise  very  vigorous  Germanophobe 
sentiment  in  the  Magyar  breast  and  to  lead  him  to  wish 
the  Teutonic  Austrians  success  in  their  anti-Slav  policy, 
as  directed  against  the  common  foe,  even  to  co-operate 
with  them  at  his  end  of  the  line,  there  are  nevertheless 
striking  differences  between  the  two.  The  circumstances 
are  quite  dissimilar.  The  Magyar  minority  is  a  homog- 
enous whole,  possessing  all  the  strategic  advantages. 
The  majority,  not  nearly  so  large  a  majority  as  is  the 
Slavic  one  in  Austria,  presents  no  united  front.  It  is 
moreover  composed  of  three  racial  fragments — a  Teu- 
tonic one,  split  up  and  settled  in  Transylvania,  in  the 
Zips  region  of  northwestern  Hungary,  and  in  the  Banat, 
in  all  about  three  millions  strong,  scattered  geographi- 
cally and  only  sympathising  one  with  the  other  for  the 
sole  reason  of  common  descent ;  the  Rumanian  one,  dwell- 
ing for  the  most  part  in  Transylvania,  with  smaller  par- 
ticles in  the  Banat  and  throughout  the  remainder  of 
Hungary,  altogether  neither  in  creed,  in  energy  nor  in 
education  and  material  development  fit  to  cope  with  the 
Magyars;  and  lastly,  the  Slavic  tribes,  such  as  Slovaks 
and  Ruthonians  in  the  northwest  and  northeast,  Croa- 
tians  and  Serbs  in  Slavonia  and  Croatia,  divided  from 
one  another  by  difference  in  language,  in  faith,  in  his- 


126    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

torical  development,  and  held  but  loosely  together  by  the 
one  bond  of  similarity  of  race.  In  this  way  and  by  reason 
of  an  ardent  belief  in  their  own  destiny,  as  well  as  by  the 
prestige  of  their  political  autonomy  and   of   a  realm 
created  by  them  and  held  against  all  comers  for  a  thou- 
sand years,  and  also  by  their  undeniable  political  superi- 
ority and  their  marvellous  capacity  of  assimilation,  the 
Magyars  of  Hungary  are  successfully  maintaining  their 
supremacy.     That  the  case  is  otherwise  in  Austria  we 
have  seen.     There  the  Teutonic  Austrians  are  not  alone 
in  a  minority  of  one  to  two,  but  they  are  themselves  but 
fragments,  greatly  modified  in  every  respect  from  the 
original  stock,  from  the  larger  people  over  in  Germany. 
They  have  to  face  among  their  Slavic  adversaries  one 
whole  race,  the  Czechs,  and  the  Czechs  happen  to  be  that 
branch  of  the  vast  Slav  family  possessed  of  stern  quali- 
ties, among  them  persistency  and  vigour ;  and  to  make  at 
all  headway  against  the  Slavic  flood  surrounding  them 
they  are  obliged  to  become  the  allies,  from  political 
measure  to  measure,  of  the  Poles  of  Galicia,  sanctioning 
the  latter 's  policy  of  ruthless  suppression  of  the  Ruthe- 
nians,  thereby  incurring  again  the  deep  hostility  of  these 
and  of  the  Slovenes  and  Rumanians  of  Bukovina.    In 
point  of  wealth,  too,  and  in  industrial  efficiency  and  in- 
tellectual progress  the  Czechs  are  a  close  second  to  the 
Austrian  Teutons.     So  that,  let  them  turn  whichever  way 
they  will,  their  tenure  of  power  is  always  insecure  and 
subject  to  sudden  reversal.     Geographically,  too,  their 
situation  is  not  nearly  so  favourable  as  is  that  of  the 
Magyars.    For  whereas  the  latter  occupy  the  very  centre 
of  Hungary  and  that  part  of  the  total  territory  by  all 
odds  the  most  fertile  and  valuable,  the  Teutonic  Aus- 
trians are  seated,  for  the  most  part,  in  less  dominating 
portions  of  the  empire.     The  Teutonic  Bohemians,  one 


POLITICAL  LIFE  127 

of  the  most  progressive  branches  of  the  race,  even  occupy 
the  outskirts,  the  ridge  of  the  kingdom,  so  to  speak.  The 
Germans  of  Upper  and  Lower  Austria  are  surrounded 
on  all  sides  by  Slavs ;  and  so  are  their  brethren  of  Silesia 
and  Moravia.  In  short,  with  all  their  other  disadvan- 
tages, the  Teutonic  Austrians  combine  those  of  unfavour- 
able sites  for  purposes  both  of  offence  and  defence.  To 
offset  that  somewhat  they  are  heirs  to  a  tongue  which  is 
among  the  leading  ones  of  the  world,  both  as  to  its  being 
a  medium  in  international  intercourse,  in  science,  com- 
merce and  art.  While,  on  the  other  hand,  Magyar  is  a 
language  which  can  never  have  more  than  a  circum- 
scribed circulation,  and  none  of  the  Slav  idioms  of  Aus- 
tria, whether  it  be  Czech,  Polish,  Slovene  or  Ruthenian, 
can  in  any  essential  respect  compare  with  German.  Yet 
here  is  the  curious  fact  that  notwithstanding  all  these 
drawbacks  the  Slav  idioms  spoken  of  have  gained  with- 
out exception  during  the  last  fifty  years  over  the  Ger- 
man within  the  territories  where  those  Slavs  formed  the 
ruling  element.  In  Bohemia  the  fact  is  most  startling, 
perhaps;  for  there  the  loss  of  German  has  been  some- 
thing like  thirty  per  cent.,  when  compared  with,  say,  1860„ 
But  in  Galicia,  too,  Polish  has  scored  an  easy  victory 
over  the  former  almost  universal  use  of  German,  facili- 
tated, no  doubt,  by  the  concession  made  in  1867  to  Galicia 
of  instituting  Polish  the  language  of  public  life — in  the 
provincial  administration,  in  the  courts,  etc.  Even 
Ruthenian  has  made  great  headway  in  Eastern  Galicia, 
and  so  has  Slovene  in  Carniola,  Carinthia  and  Styria. 
And  Italian,  the  common  vernacular  in  the  southern 
Tyrol,  in  Istria  and  the  district  of  Trieste,  has  displaced 
German  completely  in  those  regions.  The  incentive  of  a 
steadily  growing  race  consciousness  and  race  pride  has 
been  behind  all  these  changes,  of  course.    In  Hungary, 


128    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

however,  this  motive  has  not  been  strong  enough  to  over- 
come the  steady  Magyarisation  tactics  of  the  Hungarian 
government.  There,  on  the  contrary,  the  tongue  spoken 
by  the  ruling  race,  the  Magyar,  has  gained.  The  suc- 
cessive tables  of  the  Hungarian  census,  published  be- 
tween 1870  and  1910,  and  which  go  into  all  these  details 
with  scrupulous  fidelity,  furnish  astounding  proof  of  the 
marvellous  success  of  the  Magyar  propaganda,  coupled 
of  course  with  special  laws  enacted  by  the  Budapest  par- 
liament with  the  distinct  purpose  of  furthering  these 
nationalisation  aims,  such  as  making  the  teaching  of 
Magyar  in  all  Hungarian  schools  (no  matter  even  if 
there  be  not  a  single  school  child  of  Magyar  parentage 
attending)  obligatory;  making  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
Magyar  compulsory  for  all  candidates  for  state  offices, 
no  matter  how  insignificant ;  paying  premiums  out  of  the 
public  funds  for  scholarships  in  Magyar,  etc.,  etc.  The 
sweeping  victory  thus  achieved  in  spreading  the  use  of 
a  language  intrinsically  among  the  most  difficult  to  learn 
in  the  universe,  and  one  which  sixty  years  ago  had  not 
even  the  beginnings  of  a  literature,  is  among  the  most 
astounding  things  recorded  for  the  nineteenth  century. 
One  additional  feature  contributing  to  the  relative 
political  prosperity  of  Hungary,  when  compared  with 
the  glaring  failure  of  Austria  in  this  respect,  has  been 
the  efficiency  of  Hungary's  parliamentary  regime.  And 
this  again  has  been,  to  some  extent,  at  least,  due  to  the 
difference  between  the  parliamentary  rules  obtaining  in 
both  legislative  bodies.  Those  in  Hungary  have  been 
framed  so  as  to  permit  the  presiding  officer  at  all  times 
full  control  of  the  house ;  those  in  Austria  are  marked  by 
impotence.  It  will  be  of  great  interest  to  watch  during 
the  ensuing  months  the  course  of  events  in  the  two  bodies. 
For  in  both  measures  are  being  deliberated  upon  which 


POLITICAL  LIFE  129 

will  stir  political  passion  to  its  depths.  In  Hungary  the 
proposed  extension  of  the  franchise,  enlarging  it  into 
something  analogous  to  manhood  suffrage,  will  bring  the 
entire  reactionary  forces  of  that  country  to  the  field, 
and  these  are,  after  all,  still  very  considerable  and  of 
far-reaching  influence.  And  in  Austria  not  only  the 
deficient  parliamentary  set  of  rules  are  to  be  amended, 
but  the  bitterest  fight  will  be  waged  on  the  proposition 
to  make  German  again  formally  the  *' language  of  public 
intercourse"  within  the  empire,  which  it  formerly  was. 
This  indeed  might  be  termed  a  war  measure ;  in  so  far 
at  least  that  the  practical  demands  made  on  the  admin- 
istrative machinery  of  the  country  (on  the  railroads  and 
the  transportation  system  more  particularly)  convinced 
all  unprejudiced  persons  that  the  sole  use  of  some  one 
language  for  these  purposes  was  absolutely  required, 
and  in  the  nature  of  things  that  one  language  in  Austria 
(out  of  the  eight  idioms  there  officially  recognised)  could 
only  be  German.  Still  there  will  be  a  bitter  fight  on  it, 
no  doubt.  For  in  Austria  this  question  of  language  has 
acquired  dimensions  more  than  commensurate  with  its 
intrinsic  importance.  It  is  never  judged  from  merely 
sensible  and  utilitarian  points  of  view,  but  nationalism 
is  always  intertwined  with  it.  This  manner  of  looking 
at  the  whole  problem  indeed  is  not  altogether  confined 
to  Austria  either.  The  other  half  of  the  realm  has  its 
share  of  it.  To  illustrate  that  I  may  briefly  relate  a  little 
incident  of  travel.  I  had  to  undertake  a  trip  from 
Vienna  to  Agram  (Slavic:  Zagreb),  the  capital  city  of 
Croatia,  and  in  going  there  had  to  cross,  of  course,  con- 
siderable Magyar  territory.  There,  in  the  train  and  on 
the  part  of  the  government  train  officials — conductor, 
baggage  master,  guard,  engineer,  firemen,  uniformed 
policemen,  down  to  the  boys  looking  after  the  water 


130    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

supply  and  selling  newspapers  or  refreshments,  every- 
body was  orthodox  Magyar.  Nothing  but  that  idiom  met 
the  ear.  But  after  the  last  Magyar  station  was  passed, 
and  the  train  began  to  roll  over  Croatian  soil,  a  startling 
metamorphosis  became  apparent.  Now  nothing  but 
Croatian  w^as  permitted.  My  few  laboriously  acquired 
phrases  of  Magyar  were  wasted.  Everybody  pretended 
not  to  understand  them.  ''Talk  Croatian!"  now  became 
the  battle  cry.  The  very  conductor,  in  punching  my  ticket, 
had  been  transmogrified  into  an  enthusiastic,  an  aggres- 
sive Croatian.  I  had  to  forego  the  purchase  of  some 
liquid  refreshment,  for  even  my  wheedling  "Pivo"  (one 
of  the  few  Czech  words  I  happen  to  know)  was  scorned, 
as  not  being  genuine  Croatian.  And  on  the  journey  back 
I  undei-went  the  same  experience.  The  rapidity  with 
which,  as  the  respective  border  was  passed,  everything 
and  everybody  changed  into  another  nationality  was 
grewsome.  It  took  one's  breath  away.  They  are  all 
morbid  on  this  point,  it  seems.  Although  they  may — 
and  often  do — possess  a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  hated 
tongue  of  their  respective  "oppressor,"  they  will  not 
acknowledge  it.  That  would  be  sacrilege  in  their  eyes. 
If  they  know  a  few  syllables  of  English  or  French,  for 
example — these  being  considered  "neutral"  tongues  for 
the  time  being — they  will  make  shift  to  convey  their 
meaning  to  you.  But  for  the  Croatian  to  talk  or  even 
understand  a  word  of  Magyar,  or  for  the  Czech  a  word 
of  German — perish  the  thought! 

The  Ausgleich  of  1867  being  the  fundamental  com- 
promise between  Austria  and  Hungary,  of  course  it  is  of 
immense  weight  in  the  relations  subsisting  between  the 
two  countries.  Here  I  will  confine  my  observations 
mainly  to  the  economic  results  of  it.  Like  every  com- 
promise this  understanding,  renewable  every  ten  years 


POLITICAL  LIFE  131 

under  conditions  of  atrocious  difficulty,  has  not  given 
full  satisfaction  on  either  shore  of  the  Leitha.  Some 
of  the  objections  to  it  are  made  in  good  faith  and  lie  in 
the  fact  that  nothing  human  is  perfect ;  but  other  objec- 
tions are  brought  up,  either  in  Austria  or  in  Hungary, 
chiefly  because  political  weapons  can  be  forged  out  of 
them.  Austria  since  1867,  owing  to  the  terms  of  this 
Ausgleich  which  vouchsafed  to  that  country,  practically 
if  not  in  express  terms,  the  whole  Hungarian  market  for 
industrial  and  commercial  exploitation,  has  made  enor- 
mous strides  in  manufacturing.  The  output  of  Austria, 
in  fact,  in  all  industrial  products  has  quadrupled  in 
volume  and  value  within  the  last  fifty  years  past.  Two- 
thirds  of  this  output  has  gone  to  Hungary.  In  1913  (the 
last  fiscal  year  for  which  complete  figures  are  available) 
the  worth  in  money  of  these  Austrian  exports  to  Hun- 
gary mounted  to  about  $600,000,000  in  American  money. 
The  whole  industrial  situation  in  Austria  has  steadily 
adapted  itself  to  this  state  of  things.  Hundreds  of  cotton 
and  cloth  mills  in  Bohemia  and  Moravia  would  go  to  the 
wall  if  this  outlet  were  closed  to  them.  It  was  only  in 
the  midst  of  the  war  that  the  first  Hungarian  gun  works 
(for  heavy  calibres)  were  inaugurated  in  thy  north- 
western part  of  the  kingdom.  Up  to  that  time  every 
rifle,  every  weapon,  every  siege  gun  used  in  the  Hun- 
garian army  was  of  Austrian  make ;  and  so  forth.  But 
in  Hungary  there  had  been  from  the  start  a  strong  and 
influential  part  of  the  nation  wholly  dissatisfied  with  the 
Ausgleich,  not  only  from  political  motives,  but  from 
economic  ones  as  w^ell.  This  section,  the  chief  mouth- 
piece of  which  is  the  Independence  Party,  with  men  like 
the  Karolyis,  the  Apponyis,  the  Batthyanys,  the  Jusths, 
the  Ugrons  at  the  head,  argued  that  this  complete  eco- 
nomic dependence  of  Hungary  on  Austria  in  all  questions 


132    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

of  industry  and  finance,  worked  not  alone  against  com- 
plete separation — an  ideal  striven  for  by  this  party — 
but  also  against  the  future  rise  of  Hungary  as  an  indus- 
trially potent  country. 

Theoretically  no  doubt  the  spokesmen  of  the  Independ- 
ence Party  are  quite  right  in  this  contention.    But  it  is 
a  question  whether,  first,  Hungary  is  intended  by  nature 
for  a  pre-eminently  manufacturing  centre,  now  or  at  any 
time;  for  its  geological  formation  seems  to  have  pre- 
destined it  for  an  agricultural  country  above  all.    And, 
next,  it  is  a  further  question  whether  it  would  be  rational 
under  these  circumstances  to  make  the  attempt  of  trans- 
forming Hungary  into  a  land  of  industrial  proclivities. 
With  radically  changed  conditions,  perhaps,  such  a  thing 
might  be  feasible ;  but  at  present,  and  for  as  long  a  period 
as  it  is  humanly  possible  to  forecast  the  future,  it  would 
decidedly  not  pay  Hungary  to  set  deliberately  to  work  to 
turn  herself  from  an  agricultural  into  a  manufacturing 
country.     True,  in  Transylvania  there  are   productive 
mines  of  all  kinds :  oil  and  coal,  iron  and  copper,  silver 
and  gold,  lead  and  zinc,  etc.    And  out  of  them  minerals 
and  petroleum  and  fuel  are  taken  in  increasing  bulk. 
Again,  more  paying  mines  are  doubtless  awaiting  ex- 
plorer and  exploiter.     Probably,  too,  there  are  still  other 
deposits  undiscovered  and  situated  on  Hungarian  soil 
hitherto  neglected.     But  the  sparsity  of  railroads,  the 
lack  of  navigable  canals,  the  dearth  of  liquid  capital,  the 
want  of  seasoned  and  enterprising  experts,  and  other 
factors  are  all  handicaps.     The  same  defects  apply  to 
the  rise  of  an  industry  of  general  scope.     However,  what 
will  not  national  pride  and  enthusiasm  accomplish !    Cer- 
tain it  is  that  the  Hungarian  people  as  a  whole,  even 
otherwise  cool  heads  of  sound  judgment,  such  as  Count 
Julius  Andrassy  and  even  Tisza  and  some  of  the  latter 's 


POLITICAL  LIFE  133 

supporters,  like  the  Counts  Szechenyi,  Erdody,  for  the 
past  twenty  years  has  deliberately  entered  the  arena  as 
a  manufacturing  one,  in  competition  with  the  Austrian. 
To  make  this  possible  at  all,  the  Hungarian  government 
had  to  subventionise  all  these  manufacturers;  to  grant 
them  loans  on  easy  terms ;  to  pay  premiums  for  finished 
products  of  a  certain  degree  of  excellence ;  to  donate  large 
sites;  to  abate  taxes;  to  let  in  raw  materials  duty-free; 
to  hold  expositions  and  spend  state  money  on  advertising 
— in  a  word,  it  had  to  encourage  this  baby  industry  in 
all  possible  ways.  And  the  results  so  far  have  been 
mediocre.  Austria  on  her  part  has  not  viewed  these 
efforts  with  complacency.  Her  whole  economic  policy  is 
so  adjusted  as  to  afford  a  large  and  certain  market  to 
Hungarian  products  of  the  soil,  and  with  such  preferen- 
tial tariffs  in  force  the  agricultural  commodities  of  Hun- 
gary have  practically  enjoyed  a  monopoly  in  Austria, 
obtaining  big  prices  and  enabling  the  cattle  and  w^heat 
raisers  in  Hungary  to  count  with  the  certainty  of  a  price 
for  every  bit  they  had  to  sell  that  was  largely  deter- 
mined by  themselves.  Thus,  Austria,  having  adjusted 
her  own  production  to  suit  the  needs  of  Hungary,  felt 
she  was  not  treated  equably  when  Hungary  made  every 
effort,  even  at  great  sacrifice,  to  make  herself  independ- 
ent of  Austrian  industry.  Much  bitter  feeling  has  been 
the  result.  It  came  to  a  head  when  during  the  war,  at  a 
time  when  Austria  was  cut  off  from  all  other  sources  of 
supply  and  her  population,  habituated  for  fifty  years 
past  to  have  Hungary  sell  her  the  large  surplus  of  her 
crops,  Hungary  failed  in  her  customary  role  of  provider 
with  the  necessary  foodstuffs.  As  hunger  pinched  more 
and  more  and  flour  was  no  longer  procurable,  Austrian 
indignation  at  what  was  construed  as  rank  Hungarian 
selfishness  or  worse,  rose  to  unparalleled  heights.     That 


134    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

in  Hungary  all  along  there  was  comparative  plenty  of 
the  necessaries  of  life,  was  notorious,  as  well  as  the  fact 
that  Tisza,  the  premier  of  Hungary,  looked  with  indiffer- 
ence at  the  sufferings  of  the  other  half  of  the  monarchy. 
And  the  explanations  now  and  then  appearing,  to  the 
effect  that  the  Hungarian  people  had  only  just  enough 
for  themselves  to  eat  and  were  unable  to  export  more 
than  a  small  part  of  their  produce,  had  no  effect  on 
popular  opinion. 

The  Ausgleich  is  renewable  every  ten  years.  It  ought 
to  have  been  renewed  by  now — for  the  decade  1907-17 
has  just  elapsed.  To  deliberate  on  this  delicate  and 
extremely  complicated  matter,  as  well  as  to  submit  the 
final  result  of  these  deliberations  for  ratification  to  the 
parliaments  of  the  two  countries,  is  the  duty  of  a  unique 
body  of  men,  called  the  ''delegations.''  These  are  made 
up  from  members  of  both  houses  of  either  parliament — 
from  the  House  of  Magnates  and  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties in  Hungary  and  from  the  House  of  Lords  and  the 
House  of  Delegates  making  up  the  Reichsrat  (or  parlia- 
ment) of  Austria.  These  delegations  have  already  for 
some  time  been  at  work,  starting  in  about  a  twelvemonth 
ago,  but  their  task  is  rendered  this  time  peculiarly  diffi- 
cult owing  to  the  unsettled  political  conditions  of  both 
countries  and  the  uncertain  outcome  of  the  war.  Certain 
it  is  that  in  the  state  of  public  sentiment,  both  in  Austria 
and  Hungary,  there  are  great  hindrances  in  the  way  of 
a  mutually  satisfactory  settlement.  It  would  lead  too 
far  to  mention  these  in  all  their  details.  But  it  may  be 
said  that  Austria,  being  both  the  more  populous  and 
the  wealthier  half  of  the  Dual  Monarchy,  has  heretofore 
had  to  pay,  as  her  share  towards  the  upkeep  of  joint 
institutions,  such  as  the  army  and  navy,  the  customs 
department,  etc.,  two-thirds  of  the  whole,  leaving  but  one- 


POLITICAL  LIFE  135 

third  to  Hungary.  Even  this  has  not  satisfied  Hungary, 
and  there  has  always  been  necessary  the  greatest  amount 
of  patience  and  of  self-control  on  the  part  of  the  dele- 
gations to  come  to  a  solution,  especially  as  the  press  of 
the  two  countries  has  naturally  taken  sides  for  or  against 
each  debatable  paragraph.  Undoubtedly  it  will  be  the 
same  this  time.  In  Hungary  the  Independence  Party  has 
of  late  gained  much  ground,  and  this  party,  of  course,  is 
against  the  Ausgleich  in  toto,  repudiating  it  in  advance. 
In  Austria,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  much  violent  anti- 
Hungarian  feeling,  due  to  war  famine  and  to  other  facts 
for  which  Hungary,  right  or  wrong,  is  held  responsible 
by  the  masses.  It  will,  therefore,  be  of  great  interest  to 
watch  the  snail-like  progress  of  the  Ausgleich  proceed- 
ings, no  matter  how  the  war  itself  may  end. 


CHAPTER  IX 

CAUSES    OF   POLITICAL   BACKWAKDNESS 

The  chief  one  is  political  immaturity — Progress  was  in  all  cases  the  re- 
sult of  dynastic  condescension — "Authority"  the  watchword — 
Austria  scarcely  influenced  by  the  western  growth  of  Liberalism — 
The  French  Revolution  left  the  masses  of  Austria  and  Hungary 
untouched— No  lack  of  political  pai-ties,  but  their  leaders  use  catch 
phrases  merely  to  entrap  voters — Liberalism  in  the  Dual  Monarchy 
in  its  chief  representatives  of  thought  and  action — No  common  aims, 
no  common  focus,  no  common  propaganda — Whole  movement  but 
sporadic— Paralysed  by  the  race  problem— In  Hungary  the  whole 
matter  more  simplified — There  Liberalism  is  less  dependent  in  its 
efforts  on  the  question  of  race — Extension  of  suffrage — Opponents 
of  such  a  reform — But  for  the  monarchy  as  a  whole  the  precarious 
political  situation  of  the  past  twenty  years  has  tended  to  cloud 
the  issue — Low  state  of  popular  education  as  a  contributing  factor. 

As  one  looks  back  upon  the  long  and  tortuous  history 
of  that  loose-joined  body  of  states  and  provinces  known 
since  1867  as  the  Dual  Monarchy,  it  becomes  apparent  to 
the  observer  why  the  people  of  Austria-Hungary  are 
politically  backward.  For  chiefly  their  historical  de- 
velopment is  responsible  for  the  fact.  In  the  case  of 
the  one-half,  of  Hungary,  the  long-continued  and  almost 
unbroken  struggle  to  maintain  themselves  against  the 
might  of  the  conquering  Crescent,  a  struggle  lasting  for 
about  350  years,  makes  it  plain  why  this  people,  who,  as 
early  as  1222,  was  already  so  far  advanced  on  the  road 
leading  to  thoroughly  liberal  institutions  as  to  wrest 
from  its  king  a  Magna  Charta  of  popular  rights  even 

136 


CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  BACKWARDNESS    137 

more  sweeping  than  that  obtained  by  the  Barons  of 
England  at  about  the  same  time,  actually  retrograded 
instead  of  advancing  farther.  Inter  arma  leges  silent. 
Incessant  war  is  no  promoter  of  civic  freedom.  Indeed, 
if  the  Magyars  had  not  been  endowed  by  nature  with  a 
strong  love  of  independence  and  free  institutions,  the  last 
vestiges  of  those  must  have  vanished  in  this  bloody  strife. 
As  it  was  progress  was  much  retarded  by  the  unfavour- 
able conditions  prevailing  until  1683,  when  the  Turks 
for  the  last  time  penetrated  as  far  as  Vienna,  and  even 
after  that,  until  the  Peace  of  Passarowitz.  As  for  Aus- 
tria, the  abnormal  growth  and  development  of  it  would 
alone  go  far  to  explain  the  political  backwardness  of  its 
masses.  There  was  no  homogeneous  soil  on  which  that 
tender  plant,  freedom,  could  take  root  and  spread  its 
branches.  The  various  provinces  and  ''lands"  falling, 
one  by  one,  under  the  dominion  of  the  Habsburgs,  not 
only  spoke  different  idioms  and  showed  a  diversity  of 
qualities,  but  they  also  stood  on  no  common  level  of 
intellectual  or  political  development.  In  every  sense 
they  were  far  removed  from  the  progress  of  the  West 
which  there  slowly  gained  headway  until,  from  1789  to 
1794,  it  grew  into  a  storm  that  upset  the  stoutest  ram- 
parts of  mediaeval  feudalism.  Thus,  when  all  Europe 
and  America  were  ringing  with  the  exploits  of  the  great 
French  Revolution,  when  civic  freedom  was  born  with 
severe  pangs  and  great  bloodshed,  and  proclaimed  to  all 
the  world,  only  faint  echoes  of  it  all  penetrated  as  far  as 
Austria-Hungary.  And  all  through  the  Napoleonic 
earthquake  these  eastern  countries  went  on  their  slow, 
somnolent  way.  Gross  abuses  of  Church  and  State  con- 
tinued to  flourish  there.  The  peoples  inhabiting  them 
still  groaned  under  these.  Serfage  even  was  not  wholly 
abolished  until  later.    All  these  peoples  were  simply  not 


138    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

yet  ripe  for  freer,  more  responsible  forms  of  govern- 
ment. Nay,  for  decades  after,  until  the  middle  of  the 
19th  century,  both  Austria  and  Hungary  were  living,  in 
some  respects,  in  almost  primordial  conditions.  There 
is  not  only  the  political  record  to  prove  that.  Two  of 
the  leading  novelists,  one  the  Austrian  woman,  Baroness 
Ebner-Eschenbach,  the  other  the  Hungarian,  Maurus 
Jokai,  in  stories  (like  her  '* Village  Tales"  and  his 
''Magyar  Nabob,"  for  instance)  that  are  admittedly  true 
to  the  original,  give  us  glimpses  of  the  kind  of  "pater- 
nalism" still  practised  in  both  countries,  a  "paternal- 
ism" which  was,  in  fact,  undiluted  absolutism  in  dealing 
with  the  lower  classes.  Even  to-day  the  change  from 
Western  to  Eastern  manners  is  at  once  apparent  to  the 
traveller  crossing  the  Austro-Hungarian  border.  Stock 
phrases  everywhere  used  by  the  low-bom  to  the  high- 
born, such  as  "I  kiss  the  hand,  your  Grace";  and  even 
the  kneeling  posture  and  the  touching  of  the  hem  of  the 
lady's  or  gentleman's  skirt  with  the  lips — all  such  things, 
slight  tokens  as  they  may  be,  illustrate  the  yet  unbridged 
abyss  between  the  democratic  West  and  the  subservient 
East. 

Thus  X.  came  about  that,  in  nearly  every  instance,  prog- 
ress in  these  matters  of  political  advance  came  not  as 
the  result  of  a  fierce  struggle  for  equality  and  greater 
human  rights,  as  was  the  case  farther  West,  but  as  the 
free  gift  from  the  rulers,  from  the  privileged  castes,  as 
a  sign  of  dynastic  condescension.  And  these  concessions 
were  doled  out  late  and  sparingly.  The  watchword  re- 
mained always:  Authority.  It  is  so  to-day,  despite  all 
the  changes  wrought  by  the  great  war.  As  in  previous 
great  struggles  the  soldiers  of  Austria  and  of  Hungary 
have  proved  excellent  fighting  machines.  To  some  of 
the  "tribes,"  as  for  example  the  Croatians  and  Dalma- 


CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  BACKWARDNESS    139 

tians  (among  whom  illiteracy  prevails  to  the  extent  of 
62-68  per  cent.),  fighting  comes  natural,  fighting  for  any- 
thing and  with  anybody,  and  they  allow  themselves  to 
be  slaughtered  by  the  thousands  without  once  inquiring 
what  they  are  really  fighting  for.  The  "panje"  (the 
masters)  have  ordered  him  to  hold  this  trench,  and  hold 
it  he  does.  Excellent  ''cannon  fodder"  this,  as  must  be 
owned.  The  Czechs,  most  advanced  of  the  Austrian 
Slavs,  alone  exercised  considerable  discrimination.  When 
they  were  sent  to  face  Slav  brethren,  such  as  Russians 
or  Serbs,  they  preferred  to  fire  in  the  air.  In  a  word, 
then,  the  masses  of  the  Austrian  people,  as  well  as  a 
considerable  portion  of  the  Hungarian  one,  are  still  in  a 
state  of  political  immaturity.  They  do  not  reflect  for 
themselves;  they  accept  as  true  what  they  are  told  by 
their  leaders  or  by  the  authorities  set  over  them,  and 
act  accordingly.  And,  of  course,  this  habit  of  unthink- 
ing obedience  is  especially  strong  in  matters  of  creed  and 
of  politics,  i.e.,  matters  which  do  not  touch  their  pockets 
directly. 

There  is,  therefore,  no  lack  of  political  parties  nor  of 
party  leaders.  This  is  especially  true  of  Austria.  In 
every  province,  every  little  while,  a  new  party,  so-called, 
is  born,  and  in  the  interested  press  the  fact  is  proclaimed 
with  blare  of  trumpet.  In  most  instances,  though,  the 
new  party  is  short-lived.  It  is  just  strong  enough  to 
elect  an  ambitious  new  ''leader"  into  the  provincial  or 
the  national  halls  of  legislation,  and  then  it  again  crum- 
bles up  and  vanishes.  In  nearly  every  case  these  new 
parties  and  their  mouthpieces  manipulate  more  or  less 
cleverly  some  catch  phrases  coined  to  describe  the  sup- 
posed specific  needs  of  a  province,  a  town,  a  district,  a 
class.  The  foremost  Austrian  politicians  are  nearly 
without  any  exception  men  exercising  their  talents  within 


140    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

a  very  circumscribed  area.  They  are  strictly  provincial 
in  their  views  and  aims.  Of  national  stature  there  are 
but  a  very  few,  and  these  are  mostly  members  of  the 
higher  house,  the  House  of  Lords,  where  their  field  is 
large  and  more  fruitful.  Austrian  politics,  speaking 
broadly,  are  dominated  by  and  are  the  outgrowth  of  pro- 
vincial desires  and  conditions,  much  more  than  that  is 
the  case  in  Hungary.  There  indeed  a  number  of  states- 
men in  the  full  meaning  of  that  word  are  at  the  head  of 
affairs.  And  even  the  opposition  leaders  are,  for  the  larg- 
er part,  real  statesmen,  men  with  national  programmes, 
definite  ideas  and  convictions,  men  of  large  calibre.  That 
is  why  whenever  constructive  statesmanship  is  urgently 
called  for  in  the  joint  affairs  of  the  Dual  Monarchy,  a 
Magyar  had  to  be  summoned  in  the  majority  of  cases. 
The  Austro-Hungarian  statesmen  of  lasting  fame,  since 
the  new  structure  came  to  exist  in  1867,  have  all  been 
Magyars — men  like  Andrassy,  Kalnoky,  Tisza,  Deak.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Austrians  who  were  put  temporarily 
at  the  head  of  affairs  during  the  past  fifty  years,  were 
usually  stop-gaps,  men  of  single  ideas,  to  fill  vacancies 
for  a  short  space  merely.  Count  Taaffe,  an  intimate 
friend  of  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  since  boyhood's 
days,  was,  perhaps,  the  only  exception.  But  Taaffe 's 
task  was  to  accomplish  the  impossible,  namely,  to  con- 
duct state  matters  so  as  to  reconcile  both  Slavs  and  Teu- 
tons of  Austria.  And  so,  of  course,  he  failed  in  the 
end.  Perhaps  it  may  be  said  that  in  no  other  country  is 
it  so  difficult  for  a  statesman  to  achieve  lasting  results 
as  in  Austria-Hungary,  even  when  leaving  aside  the  fact 
of  the  people's  political  crudeness.  For  this  conglom- 
erate people  is  thinking  only  in  sections,  working  and 
achieving  only  in  sections,  and  is,  therefore,  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  ever  at  cross-purposes,  and  is  never 


CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  BACKWARDNESS    141 

backing  up  a  statesman  of  original  conceptions  and 
methods  with  its  united  strength.  This  fact,  too,  has  led 
in  the  end  to  the  failure  of  nearly  every  one  of  Austria- 
Hungary's  strong  diplomats.  Were  it  not  for  that,  Hun- 
garians are  by  nature  peculiarly  gifted  for  dealing  with 
large  affairs  of  the  state,  and  among  the  pliant  and  subtle 
Slav  minds  of  Austria  there  is  also  excellent  raw  mate- 
rial for  diplomacy.  It  is  the  unstable  character  of  the 
people  they  represent  that  is  to  blame. 

Now  the  question  may  well  be  asked :  Is  there  such  a 
thing  as  political  Liberalism  in  Austria-Hungary  at  all? 
As  to  Hungary  it  may  be  answered  unequivocally  in  the 
affirmative.  In  fact,  the  idea  of  Liberalism  has  made 
there  great  strides  in  advance  for  some  time,  long  before 
the  outbreak  of  the  war.  But  the  forces  working  the 
other  way  have  also  all  along  been  strong,  marshalled  as 
they  were  by  such  a  consummate  tactician  as  Count 
Stephen  Tisza.  Then  the  question  of  freer  political  in- 
stitutions is  in  Hungary  intimately  interwoven  with 
great  material  interests.  For  with  a  broader  franchise 
will  inevitably  come  the  end  of  aristocratic  rule,  and 
especially  will  the  overweening  influence  of  the  Magnate 
families  of  historic  note,  such  as  the  Esterhazys,  the 
Palffys,  the  Szechenyis,  the  Pallavicinis,  etc.,  be  curtailed. 
These  owners  of  estates,  so  large  that  they  overtop  in 
size  some  of  the  smaller  German  sovereign  principalities, 
are  naturally  averse  to  parting  with  them,  or  fractions 
of  them,  save  at  advantageous  terms.  These  Magnate 
dynasties,  one  might  almost  say,  hold  jointly  about  one- 
third  the  soil  of  all  Hungary,  and  the  very  size  of  their 
possessions  forbids  any  but  the  most  careless  extensive 
cultivation  of  it.  Meanwhile,  owing  to  inability  to  acquire 
sufficient  arable  land  of  their  own,  year  after  year  many 
thousands  of  sturdy  Hungarian  peasants  have  emigrated 


142    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

to  the  United  States  or  Canada.  According  to  the  latest 
census  figures  an  army  of  over  100,000  of  such  land- 
hungry  peasants,  Magyars  to  boot,  have  deserted  the  Al- 
fold,  the  most  favoured  region  of  Hungary,  for  no  other 
reason  but  the  one  stated ;  while  from  Croatia  the  reports 
are  that  270,000  of  these  Hungarian  Slavs  have  gone  to 
seek  better  fortune  across  the  Atlantic  during  the  five 
years  1905-10  alone.  The  granting  of  manhood  suffrage 
(for  the  emigrants  all  belong  to  the  disfranchised  classes 
of  the  population)  would  doubtless  soon  put  a  stop  to 
such  an  unnatural  and  grossly  selfish  land  policy,  espe- 
cially under  the  leadership  of  such  able  and  unprejudiced 
parliamentarians  as  Andrassy,  Apponyi,  the  Karolyis, 
etc.,  who  strongly  advocate  the  forcible  dispossession  of 
those  favoured  estate  owners,  against  adequate  compen- 
sation on  the  instalment  plan.  Tisza,  the  ablest  and  most 
unbending  of  the  Hungarian  reactionary  forces,  is  now 
out  of  power,  and  the  road  to  this,  the  greatest  internal 
reform  movement  in  Hungary  for  many  years,  seems 
open.  It  is  certainly  strange  that  this  movement  has 
been  sponsored  by  Hungarian  aristocrats  who  themselves 
belong  to  families  tracing  their  patents  of  nobility  back 
to  the  days  of  Arpad,  more  than  a  thousand  years  ago, 
for  warlike  deeds  performed  under  the  banner  of  the' 
king.  But  it  must  be  recalled  that  a  middle  class,  the 
class  which  in  most  other  modern  states  is  the  chief 
advocate  of  political  Liberalism,  is  really  only  in  the 
making  in  Hungary.  The  Magyars  are  tillers  of  the 
soil,  not  dwellers  in  town  and  dealers  in  wares.  That 
task  has  there  fallen  mostly  to  two  classes  of  the  popu- 
lation, viz.,  the  Jews — of  whom  there  are  living  about 
one  million  within  the  kingdom — and  the  Teutonic  Hun- 
garians, altogether  numbering  close  on  three  millions. 


CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  BACKWARDNESS    143 

The  latter,  however,  that  is,  the  bulk  of  them,  are  pros- 
pering on  their  own  soil,  in  Transylvania,  in  the  Banat, 
in  the  Zips  districts,  and  but  a  part  of  them  is  either  in 
commerce,  manufacture  or  engaged  in  the  professions  in 
the  towns  of  interior  Hungary.  So  that  the  Jews  really 
form  the  greater  part  of  Magyar  town  life.  They  also, 
besides  those  enlightened  and  progressive  sections  of  the 
Magyar  intelligent  classes,  government  employes  and 
nobility  spoken  of,  make  up  a  large  percentage  of  ad- 
vanced or  even  radical  Liberalism  in  Hungary.  The 
Hungarian  press  is  nearly  altogether  Jewish. 

The  same  fact  is  true  of  Austria.  In  Vienna,  for  in- 
stance, the  Jewish  element  is  by  far  the  most  conspicuous. 
It  dominates  in  the  press,  finance,  commerce  and  in- 
dustry. In  fact,  progress  in  every  shape  throughout 
Austria  is  a  synonym  for  Judaism.  Politically,  it  is 
true,  this  remark  must  be  reduced  to  its  proper  limits. 
For  there  is  not  only  a  large  and  rapidly  growing  Social- 
ist element  in  existence,  but  there  are  also  several  Teu- 
ton-Austrian parties  and  several  Czech  ones  which  form 
together  a  considerable  portion  of  the  electorate  of  the 
country  and  which  undoubtedly  must  be  classed  as  Liber- 
als. The  Christian  Socialists,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
professedly  anti-Semites  and  so  are  subdivisions  of  the 
Socialists,  as  in  Bohemia  and  in  Slovene  districts.  The 
latter  fact  is  largely  explained  by  the  successful  tactics 
of  Jewish  speculators  in  land,  depriving  thereby  strata 
of  the  peasant  population  of  their  holdings  and  inducing 
them  to  emigrate. 

But  one  fact  must  never  be  lost  sight  of :  the  race 
question  here,  as  in  everything  else,  injects  itself  into 
political  life.  It  overtops  every  other.  It  contrives  to 
prevent  political  Liberalism  from  ever  achieving  a  united 


144    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

front.  It  relegates  Liberalism  to  a  secondary  place.  For 
Liberals  in  Austria  there  are  no  common  aims,  no  com- 
mon focus,  no  common  propaganda,  and  there  cannot  be 
so  ■  long  as  existing  conditions  continue.  It  brings  it 
about  that  the  whole  Liberal  movement  in  Austria  is  but 
sporadic,  never  of  any  long  duration,  never  cementing 
parties  or  fractions,  provincially  or  racially  divided,  into 
a  unit,  not  even  temporarily.  I  mentioned  briefly  that  in 
this  respect,  as  in  others,  Hungary  is  more  fortunate. 
The  race  question  plays  there,  too,  a  big  part ;  but  it  does 
not  overshadow  all  other  questions.  Besides,  although 
the  Magyars  have  been  ruthlessly  Magyarising  the  non- 
Magyar  races  dwelling  side  by  side  with  them,  there  is 
not  the  same  virnlent  race  hatred  displayed  as  in  Aus- 
tria, owing  in  part  to  a  singular  gift  of  assimilation 
possessed  by  the  dominant  element.  In  Austria  unfor- 
tunately the  race  strife  has  for  several  generations  as- 
sumed forms  and  attained  a  degree  of  bitterness  un. 
paralleled,  I  believe,  anywhere  in  history. 

However,  there  is  one  more  factor  militating  against 
the  spread  of  Liberalism.  The  precarious  political  situ- 
ation of  the  Dual  Monarchy  during  the  twenty  years  past 
has  tended  more  and  more  to  cloud  that  issue.  Conscious 
of  her  increasing  delicate  situation  internally,  conscious 
also  of  the  waning  loyalty  of  large  sections  of  her  popu- 
lation, and  at  the  same  time  facing  every  year  anew  the 
dimly  threatening  danger  of  a  coming  war — a  veritable 
struggle  for  existence — the  movement  for  enhanced  Lib- 
eralism has  been  relegated  to  the  background.  And  not 
only  that,  the  low  state  of  public  education  in  the  mon- 
archy as  a  whole,  but  more  particularly  in  certain  por- 
tions of  Austria,  has  also  had  much  to  do  with  the  rela- 
tively small  interest  the  question  of  attaining  freer  in- 
stitutions has  elicited.    Illiteracy  so  widespread  as  it  is 


CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  BACKWARDNESS    145 

shown  by  the  census  of  1910  to  exist  in  Austria — nearly 
ten  millions  of  analphabets  out  of  a  total  of  twenty-six 
millions — is  surely  not  contributory  to  Liberalism  in 
politics. 


CHAPTER  X 


THE  HABSBUBGS  AND  THEIE  FAMILY  POLICY 

It  may  be  described  in  one  short  phrase:  personal  aggrandisement- 
Viewed  from  that  angle  it  has  been  consistent  through  the  cen- 
turies—Their "lands"  and  their  "peoples"  regarded  by  them  as 
personal  possessions— Never  an  honest  attempt  to  interpret  the  long- 
ing's and  racial  aspirations  of  their  conglomerate  subjects— Not 
even  unselfishly  devoted  to  the  Austrians  of  German  stock — Lean- 
ing on  those  elements  which  for  the  time  were  most  powerful — The 
question  of  race  and  the  Habsburg  dynasty — Not  German  at  all — 
The  influence  of  the  Jesuits  lasted  for  over  two  hundred  years — 
The  Habsbui-g  court  since  1564  a  refuge  for  titled  adventurers  from 
all  over  Europe — Examples  and  names — The  new  landholding 
aristocracy  in  Austria — The  prestige  acquired  by  the  Habsburgs 
through  the  Imperial  crown  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  solely  used 
to  further  Habsburg  dynastic  interests— During  the  last  fifty  years 
the  Habsburg  family  policy  has  been  greatly  hampered  by  Hun- 
gary and  by  the  race  problem — But  it  is  still  the  only  guiding  star 
for  the  ruler. 

Not  so  very  remote  are  the  times  when  all  the  crowned 
heads  of  Europe,  each  in  his  own  way  and  working  with 
the  means  ready  to  his  hand,  looked  at  the  lands  and 
nations  entrusted  to  their  care  as  so  much  private  prop- 
erty. Those  were  the  days  when  the  principle  of  divine 
rulership  still  found  common  acceptance;  when  such 
heresies  as  ''consent  of  the  governed,"  ''no  taxation 
without  representation,"  etc.,  were  not  even  dreamt  of; 
when,  as  jolly  old  Pepys  narrates  in  his  diary,  even  free 
Britons  went  down  on  their  knees  drinking  the  health  of 

146 


HABSBURGS  AND  THEIR  FAMILY  POLICY     147 

their  merry  sovereign.  ''Kneeling,  let's  kneel,  damn 
you,"  lie  exhorts  his  friend  in  the  street.  Mankind  has 
passed  through  the  whole  gamut  of  "loyalty"  in  its  vari- 
ous interpretations.  There  were  days  (and  in  Japan 
they  lie  but  a  short  while  back,  for  instance)  when  men 
were  so  ''loyal"  that  their  rulers,  like  the  gods  them- 
selves, must  remain  invisible  and  when  to  gaze  at  them 
meant  to  die  the  death  of  a  malefactor.  There  were  days 
when  the  "king  could  do  no  wrong" ;  when  the  king  could 
not  only  say:  "L'etat  c'est  moi/'  but  actually  mean  it, 
and  meaning  it  could  regulate  all  his  doings  accordingly, 
to  the  great  edification  of  his  subjects ;  when  the  policy 
of  a  nation  was,  in  essence,  nothing  but  the  personal 
policy  of  its  king.  That  policy  then  might,  perhaps,  re- 
dound for  a  certain  period  to  the  advantage,  material 
and  otherwise,  of  the  people  he  ruled,  or  it  might  not. 
In  any  case,  it  was  a  policy  dictated  chiefly  or  entirely  by 
the  wishes  and  impulses,  by  the  ambitions  and  idiosyn- 
crasies of  one  person,  the  monarch.  Necessarily  such  a 
policy  was  unstable,  because  it  changed  with  the  accession 
of  a  new  ruler  who  often  might  hold  opposite  views  of 
what  was  best  for  him.  There  are  some  notable  excep- 
tions to  this  recorded  in  history,  but  they  are,  after  all, 
exceptions,  and  do  not  vitiate  the  theory  as  a  whole. 
There  were  also  in  those  earlier  days  some  rulers,  a 
very  few,  who  did  not  identify  their  nation's  interests 
with  their  own,  but  rather  their  own  interests  with  theirs. 
These,  too,  were  rare.  Of  the  nations  that  in  modern 
times  have  achieved  greatness,  measurable  prosperity 
and  success  it  may  be  said  that  their  guiding  spirits 
more  frequently  made  the  happiness  of  the  governed 
tally  with  their  own  than  was  the  case  in  other  countries. 
The  human  species  has  gone  through  all  these  prelimi- 
nary stages  of  political  development  semi-consciously. 


148    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

Humiliating  to  our  pride  of  to-day  as  it  may  seem,  these 
former  phases  of  evolution  were  probably  necessary  to 
bring  it  at  last  home  to  man  that  civic  and  national  free- 
dom presupposes  a  rather  high  degree  of  intelligence  and 
character.  Conversely  Louis  XI  of  France  probably  did 
not  knowingly  pursue  a  policy  favourable  to  the  develop- 
ment of  an  advancing  middle  class  when  he  persistently 
curtailed  the  feudal  powers  and  privileges  of  the  nobles ; 
neither  did  Richelieu  or  Mazarin — at  least  we  have  no 
utterance  of  theirs  to  tell  us  so. 

But  while  in  England  and  France  and  even  in  certain 
states  of  Germany  there  were  occasional  monarchs  whose 
aims  served  the  best  interests  of  those  countries,  in  that 
agglutination  of  lands  under  the  sceptre  of  the  Habs- 
burgs  there  was  literally  not  one  of  that  description,  not 
one  during  all  the  centuries  elapsed  since  Rudolph  of 
Habsburg  first  laid  the  foundation  to  their  dynastic 
power.  As  one  quickly  passes  in  review  the  main  his- 
torical events  in  which  the  Habsburgs  played  a  part  since 
1273,  in  vain  you  will  look  for  one  single  bit  of  evidence 
that  their  polity  has  been  other  than  one  dictated  by 
family  reasons — to  be  more  precise,  than  that  of  per- 
sonal aggrandisement.  There  have  been  learned  dis- 
cussions on  this  point,  and  it  must  be  owned  that  on  the 
face  of  it  the  doings  of  this  or  that  particular  Habsburg 
are  hard  to  interpret  on  reasonable  grounds  (as  when 
they  systematically  devastated  Bohemia,  their  most 
valuable  ''crownland")  but  doubt  vanishes  and  every- 
thing becomes  clear  when  one  remembers  that  the  sole 
line  of  conduct  consistently  followed  through  all  their 
tortuous  paths  was  and  is  inspired  by  family  tradition; 
that  it  always  strove  for  more  personal  power,  for  larger 
possessions  and  wider  influence,  for  the  further  exten- 
sion of  their  conglomerate  territories. 


HABSBURGS  AND  THEIR  FAMILY  POLICY     149 

That  has  been  the  single  Habsburg  policy  for  650  years. 
To  lord  it  over  more  and  more  lands,  no  matter  how 
foreign  in  race  and  no  matter  how  such  addition  might 
be  brought  about — that  has  been  their  one  object.  And 
through  it  all,  not  only  in  remoter  days  when  similar 
views  obtained  everywhere  else,  but  down  to  this  very 
hour,  the  Habsburgs  have  regarded  the  polyglot  races 
under  their  sway  as  their  personal  possessions,  as  human 
chattels  to  do  with  as  they  liked.  Even  when  this  present 
war  broke  out,  how  did  aged  Francis  Joseph  address 
them  in  his  proclamations?  He  spoke  to  them  as  ''My 
Peoples"  (Meine  Volker) ;  he  spoke  of  the  millions  fight- 
ing for  the  preservation  of  his  throne  as  ''My  Army"; 
of  the  allied  nations  as  "My  Allies."  Everywhere  else 
concessions  had  to  be  made  to  a  spirit  of  independence ; 
not  so  in  Austria.  There  the  policy  pursued  by  the 
crown  remained  that  of  the  family  tradition,  that  of  per- 
sonal aggrandisement.  With  justice  it  is  laid  to  the 
charge  of  the  Habsburgs  that  there  never  was  any  at- 
tempt made  by  them  to  bring  their  subjects  closer  to 
them  spiritually;  to  make  acquaintance  with  their  souls, 
with  their  racial  aspirations,  with  their  secret  longings 
and  dreams.  The  welfare  of  not  one  of  the  eight  races 
living  in  the  shadow  of  their  throne  was  ever  made  their 
care.  And  even  the  oft-mooted  question  whether  the 
Habsburgs  are  of  German  stock,  whether  they  sympa- 
thise in  their  hearts  with  German  ideals,  whether,  in 
short,  they  may  be  classed  as  Teutons,  even  that  question 
must  be  answered  with  a  most  emphatic  negative.  The 
Habsburgs  (even  more  than  the  other  Austrians  origi- 
nally of  Germanic  lineage)  have  long  ago  ceased  to  feel 
themselves  as  Germans.  Emperor  Maximilian,  the 
grandfather  of  Charles  V,  was  the  last  one  of  the  Habs- 
burgs that  still  lived  and  thouglit  as  a  German,  and  that 


150    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

was  four  hundred  years  ago.  Since  then  the  Habsburgs 
— even  in  the  days  of  Maximilian  a  mixed  product  as  to 
descent — have  forfeited  every  right  to  be  classified  raci- 
ally with  any  particular  stock.  The  blood  of  Burgundy, 
of  Flanders,  of  Spain,  of  Italy,  of  France,  of  Bohemia, 
of  Hungary  flows  and  mingles  in  their  veins,  and  save 
the  thick  and  pendulous  underlip — the  far-famed  Habs- 
burg  lip — which  is  the  one  physical  trait  marking  them 
through  the  centuries,  there  are  no  special  racial  char- 
acteristics in  body  or  face  telling  them  apart.  They 
themselves  are  not  only  as  polyglot  as  the  ''peoples"  they 
rule  over,  but  far  more  "compound"  in  their  lineage. 
Neither  are  the  Habsburgs  intellectually  in  sympathy 
with  the  German  nation  of  to-day.  Not  even  Maria 
Theresa,  not  even  her  talented  son,  the  semi-Frenchman 
Joseph  II,  showed  any  interest  in  the  golden  age  of 
German  music  (Beethoven,  Schubert,  Haydn,  Mozart, 
etc.)  or  German  poetry  (Schiller,  Goethe,  Lessing,  etc.). 
And  the  late  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  although  his 
whole  life  long  fond  of  Vienna  and  Vienna  ways,  never 
cared  a  rap  for  the  German  stage  or  German  science,  his 
preference  being  for  the  ballet  and  for  the  florid  style  of 
opera. 

For  more  than  two  hundred  years — i.e.,  from  1564- 
1772 — the  Jesuits  dominated  the  court  of  the  Habsburgs, 
making  themselves  absolute  keepers  of  the  Habsburg 
conscience  and  smothering  every  attempt  made  to  smug- 
gle in  some  of  the  religious  Liberalism  from  France  or 
Germany.  They,  too,  were  the  intellectual  authors  of  the 
virulent  "Counter-Reformation"  that  set  in  throughout 
Austria  and  that  finally  led  to  the  horrible  Thirty  Year's 
"War  (1618-48),  leaving  not  only  Germany  completely  ex-^ 
hausted,  beggared  and  depopulated,  but  Austria  and 
Hungary  as  well,  albeit  not  to  the  same  extent.    And 


HABSBURGS  AND  THEIR  FAMILY  POLICY    151 

when,  under  the  reign  of  that  strange  non-Habsburgian 
Habsburg,  Joseph  II,  the  Jesuit  rule  was  temporarily 
abolished,  when  even  Portugal  and  France  had  put  an 
end  to  Jesuit  intrigues  within  their  domains,  on  the 
death  of  that  enlightened  Joseph  II  the  order  was 
once  more  restored  to  predominating  influence  under 
Metternich's  baleful  regime.  Even  later,  Austria,  by  the 
Concordat  concluded  with  the  Vatican,  once  more 
shackled  education  and  free  intellectual  growth. 

And  to  their  court  in  Vienna,  since  the  reign  of  Em- 
peror Rudolph,  of  Ferdinand  and  his  successors  during 
the  whole  of  the  17th  century,  the  Habsburgs,  mongrels 
in  blood  and  bigots  in  religion,  invited  all  the  titled  ad- 
venturers of  Europe.  And  they  came.  They  came  from 
France,  from  Italy,  from  Spain,  from  the  Netherlands, 
from  Ireland  and  Scotland  and  England;  poor  Catholic 
gentlemen  mostly,  driven  out  by  persecutors  themselves, 
or  else  only  possessing  a  sharp  sword  to  be  sold  to  the 
highest  bidder.  And  thus  you  find  them,  all  through  the 
flirty  years  of  fighting,  always  under  the  Habsburg 
banner,  the  Butlers  and  0  'Donnells ;  the  MacMahons  and 
0 'Byrnes,  the  DeLaceys  (raised  to  the  rank  of  counts) 
and  Mercys  and  Montmorencys,  the  Clam  Gallas  and 
Clarys, — the  whole  litany  of  them  from  every  quarter  of 
the  compass.  Many  of  these  were  rewarded  with  large 
estates  in  Bohemia  or  Moravia  or  other  places  where  the 
former  noble  owners,  as  rebels,  had  graced  the  gallows, 
and  they  started  a  new  nobility  there,  one  still  in  posses- 
sion to-day.  Later,  too,  when  Prince  Euge.ie  of  Savoy 
came  out  of  France  to  fight  for  Austria,  side  by  side  with 
Marlborough,  against  the  man  he  hated  most,  Louis  XIV, 
and  still  later,  when  Laudon,  the  Englishman,  became  the 
best  sword  Maria  Theresa  could  send  against  her  arch- 
enemy, Frederick  of  Prussia — during  all  these  troublous 


152    AUSTRIA-HUNG AEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

days  when  Austria's  black  eagle  on  a  golden  field  was 
flying  everj^vhere — from  Belgrade  and  the  Lower  Danube 
to  the  dykes  of  Holland,  adventurers  of  empty  purse  and 
high-sounding  names  flocked  to  Vienna  to  make  their 
fortunes.  And  all  the  time,  too,  Vienna  became  a  non- 
German  town;  its  court  was  completely  denationalised; 
in  every  sense  this  court  drew  its  inspiration  from  the 
Catholic  South  (Italy  and  Spain  notably)  rather  than 
from  Protestant  Germany,  Holland  or  England. 

Any  one  w^ho  will  take  the  trouble  to-day  to  study  such 
oflicial  Austrian  sources  as,  for  instance,  the  Court  Cal- 
endar, Army  Register,  the  Dictionary  of  Notabilities, 
etc.,  may  easily  convince  himself  that  as  far  at  least  as 
the  nobility  and  the  landholding  classes  of  Austria  are 
concerned,  these  are  overwhelmingly  non-Teutonic  in 
descent.  They  are  also  non-Slavic.  They  are  the  scions 
of  that  motley  crowd  of  which  we  spoke  above.  Indeed 
it  may  be  said,  without  stating  the  case  too  crudely,  that 
for  centuries  the  eminent  names  in  the  history  of  Austria 
have  been  non-Austrian.  Not  to  go  back  any  farther 
than  1700,  one  finds  such  ''Austrian"  worthies  as  Prince 
Eugene  of  Savoy,  the  equally  great  Italian,  General 
Montecucoli,  the  doughty  Irishman  DeLacy,  the  Irish- 
man Taaffe,  the  Frenchmen  or  Belgians  d'Argenteau,  de 
Bucquoi,  de  Hoyos,  the  Irishman  Plunkett;  the  Slav 
Kaunitz,  the  Saxon  Beust,  the  Rhinelander  Metternich, 
etc.  And  when,  on  the  other  hand,  one  investigates  the 
list  of  landholders  in  Bohemia,  it  is  found  that  the  chief 
names  are,  it  is  true,  German,  like  the  Princes  Schwarz- 
enberg,  the  Thuns,  Hohenbergs,  Harrachs,  Schonborns, 
Lichtensteins,  Waklsteins,  owning  between  them  some 
81/^  per  cent,  of  the  total  area  of  that  country,  but  that 
these  names  are  titles  conferred  by  Habsburg  rulers  on 
the  aforesaid  foreigners  that  had  come  to  grace  their 


HABSBURGS  AND  THEIR  FAMILY  POLICY    153 

court,  or  Italian  like  Pallavicini,  Piccolomini,  but  Czech 
in  hardly  a  single  instance.  What  a  contrast  is  afforded 
in  this  respect  by  Hungary!  There  the  aristocracy  (to- 
gether with  the  Church  and  with  some  municipalities) 
holds  enormous  estates,  and  they  bear  nearly  all  names 
famous  in  Hungarian  history,  such  as  the  Esterhazys, 
Karolyis,  Szechenyis,  Palffys,  Batthyanys,  Erdelys, 
Tokolys,  Serenyis,  Festetics;  Wenckhoims.  Altogether 
they  occupy  jointly  no  less  than  30  per  cent,  of  the 
entire  land,  and  two  of  their  estates  measure  each  more 
than  half  a  milhon  of  acres,  with  another  score  measuring 
each  between  150,000  and  200,000  acres.  But  then  Hun- 
gary never  had  any  "Counter-Reformation,"  such  as  Bo- 
hemia had. 

The  creation  of  a  new  non-Slavic  and  non-Teutonic 
nobility  in  Austria  explains,  besides,  several  phenomena. 
This,  for  example,  that  again  in  striking  contrast  with 
Hungary,  this  nobility  having  no  racial  ties  with  the  soil 
nor  with  the  bone  and  sinew  of  the  people  inhabiting  it, 
never  led  the  van  in  any  movements  aiming  at  obtaining 
desired  concessions  from  the  crown,  but  that  they  on  the 
contrary  were  bound  hand  and  foot  to  the  latter.  Again, 
it  explains  how  it  comes  that  this  new  aristocracy, 
wealthy  and  cultured  (though  the  word  must  be  under- 
stood in  rather  a  narrow  sense)  though  it  be,  is  not 
patriotic,  but  rather  cosmopolitan  in  sentiment  and  sjm- 
pathies.  Also  in  a  measure,  that  they  are  veiy  clannish 
and  exclusive.  In  other  countries  derivation  of  the  no- 
bility proceeded  along  different  lines ;  their  historic  role, 
at  certain  phases  of  development  (such  as,  in  England, 
in  the  early  Middle  Ages  and  again  in  later  days,  in  Hun- 
gary throughout  her  whole  history,  in  France  in  the  days 
of  the  Ligue,  of  the  Fronde  and  even  later,  in  Italy  during 
the  period  of  the  Renaissance  and  again  during  the  Ris- 


154    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

org-ameiito  of  Oavour  and  Garibaldi,  in  Germany  in  the 
days  of  Goethe  and  Schiller),  went  far  to  atone  for  other 
shortcomings.  But  in  Austria  there  are  no  such  compen- 
sating features  of  the  case,  for  even  in  the  arts,  in  music, 
etc.,  the  part  they  played  as  patrons  was  a  sorry  one. 
They  allowed  the  great  geniuses  of  the  country  almost  to 
starve,  while  they  wasted  their  substance  on  Italian 
primedonne  or  French  ballerinas. 

And  as  one  scans  in  vain  the  historical  horizon  of 
Austria  to  discover  extenuating  circumstances  for  this 
Habsburg  "land  hunger,"  it  must  not  be  overlooked  that 
the  centuries-long  tenure  of  the  crown  of  the  Holy  Roman 
Empire  (the  title  from  1500  on  had  become  an  empty 
one,  as  no  other  Habsburg,  after  Charles  V,  had  either 
sought  or  obtained  coronation  in  Rome)  by  the  Habs- 
burgs  was  not  productive  of  any  tangible  benefits  to  the 
German  nation.  The  imperial  crowni,  in  fact,  deterior- 
ated into  a  nonentity,  into  a  shadow  without  substance. 
And  it  deteriorated  into  that  mainly  because  the  Habs- 
burgs,  ever  much  more  eager  to  gather  to  themselves  an 
ever  increasing  "Hausmaclit/'  so-called,  that  is,  terri- 
tories of  their  own,  without  troubling  their  heads  much 
about  the  internal  concerns  of  Germany  proper,  and 
misusing  their  own  ''Hausmacht"  indeed,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  rise  of  Protestanism  in  Luther's  time  and  again 
during  the  whole  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  to  coerce 
those  German  princes  not  in  religious  consonance  with 
them,  had  in  reality  ceased  to  be,  as  I  pointed  out  before, 
Germans  in  sentiment  or  aim.  They  cleverly  enough 
plied  the  prestige  which  the  imperial  crown  ensured 
them,  in  attaining  their  own  dynastic  ends,  but  were 
wholly  indifferent  to  the  ultimate  fate  of  Germany  while 
posing  as  its  protectors  and  spokesmen. 

Now  during  the  last  fifty  years  this  Habsburg  dynastic 


HABSBURGS  AND  THEIR  FAMILY  POLICY     155 

policy  has  been  enormously  hampered  by  the  fact  that 
Hungary  by  the  so-called  Ausgleich  of  1867  has  acquired 
substantial  autonomy.  It  is  this  fact,  the  fact  that  side 
by  side  with  Austria,  forming  joart  of  the  Gesammt-Mon- 
archie  {i.e.,  the  monarchy  as  a  whole)  there  was  a  coun- 
try enjoying  a  larger  measure  of  independence  and  po- 
litical prosperity,  that  has  hastened  the  process  of  racial 
strife  in  Austria  herself,  and  has  rendered  it  much  more 
acute  than  it  would  probably  have  been  otherwise.  Of 
these  things  I  speak  more  fully  elsewhere. 

Suffice  it  to  say  here  that  notwithstanding  this  latest 
phase  of  the  whole  matter,  the  Habsbnrg  family  policy 
has  still  remained  the  old  one.  It  still  is  the  guiding  star 
of  Habsburg  existence.  So  far  as  visible  signs  go,  there 
has  been  no  modification  of  it,  no  conversion  to  more 
modern  and  enlightened  doctrines.  As  to  Hungary,  the 
constitution  and  the  terms  of  the  Ausgleich  bind  the  king 
down  to  specified  duties  and  prerogatives,  and  all  politi- 
cal parties  in  Hungary  watch  jealously  that  these  be  not 
exceeded  by  a  hair's  breadth.  But  as  to  Austria  the  case 
is  different.  The  Habsburgs  there  have  not  given  up 
their  ancient  pretension  of  ruling  and  governing  both. 
By  small  compromises  to  right  and  left,  by  playing  out 
one  party  and  one  province  against  the  other,  the  Habs- 
burgs have  so  far  contrived  to  postpone  the  day  when 
they  must  either  quit  or  else  condone  for  their  past  by 
embracing  the  faith  and  the  methods  of  modern  times. 
For  the  old,  old  game  of  divide  et  impera,  the  old  heathen 
statecraft  of  the  Romans,  will  not  serve  them  any  longer. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE   IMPERIAL   COURT 

Above  all  it  requires  modernising  principles — Is  the  most  retrograde 
and  exclusive  court  in  the  world — Mediaeval  views  and  customs  still 
prevailing — Solemn  obsequies  at  the  late  Emperor's  death  an  illus- 
tration— The  Habsburgs  in  their  various  branches — The  ''Thou"  in 
court  and  ai'istoeratic  circles — Some  improvements  by  the  present 
imperial  couple:  Carl  and  Zita — Maria  Josef  a,  the  Emperor's 
mother — A  few  notes — The  late  Archduke  Otto — Emperor's  brother 
is  a  lawyer — How  the  people  regard  the  whole  court — Some  unap- 
preciated facts  about  Francis  Joseph — His  mother,  Archduchess 
Sophia — SimjDlicity  and  stubbornness — Carl  Ludwig — The  Habs- 
burg  fund — The  Este  fund — The  Toseana  branch — ^Leopold  Salva- 
tor — One  of  the  few  iLseful  members  of  the  house — His  prayer  at 
the  outbreak  of  the  war — Escapades  and  scandals — Carl  Stephan, 
the  'Tole,"  and  Joseph,  the  "Mag^'ar" — Rainier  and  Ernst — His 
datighters  and  son,  and  their  lawsuit — Morganatic  marriages — 
Archduke  Frederick  and  family — The  late  Archduke  Francis  Ferdi- 
nand. 

One  of  the  things  that  have  tended  to  create  the  im- 
pression throughout  the  world  that  Austria-Hungary  is 
a  very  backward  country,  is  its  imperial  and  royal  court. 
And  indeed  it  must  be  said  that  this  impression  is  not  far 
wrong.  For  there  are  a  number  of  features  about  this 
particular  court  which  strangely  clash  with  the  demo- 
cratic sentiments  obtaining  to-day  in  other  countries. 
The  reputation  acquired  by  the  Vienna  court  of  being  the 
most  retrograde,  the  most  intensely  mediaeval  in  its 
views,  its  ironclad  system  of  ceremonies,  and  its  general 

156 


THE  IMPERIAL  COURT  157 

bearing  towards  the  other  dwellers  in  this  mundane 
sphere,  is  not  undeserved.  The  breath  of  real  life  has  not 
yet  found  any  cranny  or  chink  by  which  to  penetrate  this 
hoary  and  somewhat  mouldering  sti^icture.  The  air  with- 
in is  unwholesome  and  heavy-laden  with  the  incense  of 
flattery.  So  far  as  history  shows,  there  has  been  but  one 
solitary  monarch  of  the  Habsburg  line  that  dared  to  be 
natural  and  progressive,  and  of  that  one,  Emperor 
Joseph  II,  the  courtiers  in  the  Hofburg,  in  Schonbrunn 
and  Laxenburg  tell  one  another  even  to-day  awesome 
stories  with  bated  breath,  although  a  century  and  a  half 
has  elapsed  since  then.  Why,  this  Joseph  II  (a  brother 
of  the  unfortunate  Marie  Antoinette  of  France)  had  even 
the  hardihood  to  throw  open  the  Prater,  the  imperial 
hunting  grounds  near  Vienna,  to  the  common,  ordinary 
people,  and  when  his  noble  courtiers  rebelled  thereat, 
murmuring  that  henceforth  they  should  not  know  where 
to  go  to  be  ''among  themselves,"  he  told  them  curtly 
that  if  that  were  a  guiding  principle  in  life  where  should 
he  himself  turn  to  be  among  his  equals  ?  He  should  have 
to  spend  his  days  among  his  ancestors  in  the  Capuchin 
mausoleum.  And  that  settled  it.  The  Prater  has  been 
a  popular  place  of  amusement  and  recreation  ever  since, 
and  Joseph  II  caused  the  inscription  to  be  placed  at  its 
main  entrance:  "To  my  Fellow-Men  from  their  True 
Servant."  But,  as  I  said,  the  memory  of  this  open- 
minded  ruler  is  hated  and  despised  by  all  those  men  and 
women  in  Austria  loving  in  their  hearts  the  micien 
regime,  with  its  disdain  of  the  "rabble" — and  the  num- 
ber of  these  is  still  surprisingly  large  in  the  empire. 
And  Joseph  II  was  the  only  one  of  his  type  in  the  annals 
of  Austria. 

It  is  the  spirit  of  the  darkest  Middle  Ages  that  is  still 
reigning  omnipotent  at  the  Vienna  court.     One  cannot 


158    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

speak  of  a  Budapest  court,  for  none  lias  been  held  there 
for  many  years.  The  late  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  al- 
though he  underwent  the  ceremony  of  coronation  as 
*' Apostolic"  King  of  Hungary  (a  title  conferred  by  the 
Pope  on  King  Stephen  in  the  year  1,000  A.D.  for  his 
services  in  behalf  of  the  general  acceptance  of  Christian- 
ity among  the  Magyars),  and  although  he  shrewdly  dick- 
ered and  bargained  with  the  Hungarian  nation  in  politi- 
cal and  economic  matters,  yet  never  really  forgave  them 
their  rebellion  of  1848-49  and  never  felt  comfortable  in 
their  midst.  It  has  been  a  much-ventilated  grievance  of 
the  Hungarians  that  their  King  would  not  reside  among 
them,  only  spending  at  long  intervals  a  few  short  weeks 
at  most  on  special  visits  to  Budapest  or  to  his  royal 
country  seat  at  Godollo.  The  old  emperor  on  his  part, 
during  the  last  score  of  his  many  years  preferred  Schon- 
brunn  (first  built  by  Maria  Theresa  in  the  middle  of  the 
18th  century),  a  smaller  and  more  unpretentious  chateau 
in  the  outskirts  of  Vienna.  Besides,  medical  advice  had 
warned  him  to  eschew  Vienna  with  its  granite  pavements. 
It  lies  embedded  in  green.  The  whole  surroundings  were 
more  to  his  liking  than  the  immense  pile  of  the  ancient 
Hofburg  in  the  heart  of  old  Vienna.  True,  the  immense 
park  itself  is  laid  out  in  the  style  of  the  stately  but  stiff 
French  art  of  Le  Notre  and  Versailles,  but  the  emperor's 
own  intimate  section  of  it,  to  which  every  morning  he 
used  to  descend  a  short  flight  leading  directly  from  his 
suite  and  liis  study  to  his  favourite  rose  garden,  was  more 
in  the  English  taste.  It  is  separated  from  the  huge  park 
with  its  rows  of  enormous  chestnuts  and  its  carefully 
trimmed  hedges  of  box,  by  tall  wire  fencing.  Through 
this  wire  fencing,  however,  any  one  could  have  seen  the 
old  gentleman  a  stone 's  throw  off,  walking  slowly  among 
his  roses,  bending  frequently  and  inhaling  the  delicious 


THE  IMPERIAL  COURT  159 

fragrance  of  a  Marechal  Niel  or  a  La  France  that  had 
opened  overnight. 

Now  the  present  young  emperor  has   ascended   the 
somewhat  shaky  throne  of  the  Habsburgs,  the  Hofburg, 
as  the  real  seat  of  the  monarch,  has  been  restored  to  its 
former  importance.     A  new  wing,  built  in  Renaissance 
style  and  actually  fitted  up  with  such  new-fangled  things 
as  sanitary  plumbing  and  comfortable  bathtubs,  has  been 
added  of  late,  and  there  the  young  Emperor  Carl  dwells 
with  his  family  when  the  season  does  not  permit  resi- 
dence in  Laxenburg.    This  Laxenburg  is  located  yet  an- 
other short  distance  beyond  Schonbrunn,  up  on  a  height, 
and  is  likewise  in  the  midst  of  tall  trees  and  verdant 
bushes,  and  meadows,  an  ideal  summer  resort.  But  wher- 
ever he  be  and  Zita,  his  spouse,  the  elaborate  etiquette 
of  the  Habsburg  court,  first  adopted  and  copied  from  the 
Spanish  of  the  Escorial,  by  the  Emperor  Charles  VI, 
follows  them.    It  may  be  recalled  that  this  same  sedate 
and  sombre  Spanish  etiquette,  prescribing  a  certain  atti- 
tude of  body  and  mind  at  nearly  every  minute  of  the  day 
or  night,  proved  too  much  for  the  young  English  wife  of 
the  present  King  Alfonso  at  Madrid,  and  that  she  pre- 
vailed upon  her  doting  lord  to  modify  it  somewhat.    It 
seems  that  the  young  Emperor  Carl  may  make  a  similar 
attempt  before  long.     There  is  certainly  room  for  some 
such  reform,  for  the  Habsburg  court  etiquette  is  by  all 
odds  the  most  stifling  in  existence.     A  striking  illustra- 
tion of  this  was  afforded,  first,  at  the  death  by  assassi- 
nation of  the  heir  to  the  throne,  Francis  Ferdinand,  and 
of  his  consort,  in  the  summer  of  1914.     The  grave  and 
awful  problem  had  to  be  solved  by  the  imperial  master 
of  ceremonies,  Prince  Montenuovo,  how  to  conduct  the 
funeral  of  the  husband  and,  next,  of  the  wife.     She,  it 
must  be  considered,  was  only  his  "morganatic"  wife. 


160    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

Her  rank  was  not  equal  to  his.  And  before  lie  was  per- 
mitted to  wed  her,  who  had  been  a  mere  Countess  Chotek, 
he  had  been  compelled  to  make  oath  of  resignation  that 
any  issue  of  the  marriage  would  not  be  entitled,  nor 
proposed  by  him  for  succession,  to  the  throne.  All  the 
rusty  wiseacres  of  the  imperial  court  were  in  a  great 
state  of  excitement  to  solve  the  knotty  question,  which 
they  finally  did  by  declaring  that  while  the  remains  of 
Francis  Ferdinand  doubtless  were  worthy  to  receive  the 
state  burial  due  a  leading  member  of  the  dynastic  line, 
and  while  every  honour  and  glittering  pageantry  of  such 
a  ceremony  should  be  exhibited  the  woman,  the  wife  of 
his  bosom  and  mother  of  his  children,  could  by  no  means 
share  in  them.  Hers  should  be  a  simple  private  funeral. 
And  so  it  was  done ;  the  whole  elaborate  ceremony,  last- 
ing for  several  days,  was  gone  through  with.  But  it 
seemed  as  though  nature  herself  wanted  to  protest 
against  this  discriminating  tomf ooler>^ ;  for  as  the  night 
came  at  last  when  the  bodies  of  these  two  were — accord- 
ing to  the  stringent  injunction  of  the  formal  will  and 
testament  of  Francis  Ferdinand — to  be  laid  side  by  side 
in  the  mausoleum  specially  built  at  his  chateau  of  Arts- 
tetten  on  the  Danube,  a  fearful  storm,  accompanied  by 
torrential  rain  and  terrific  thunder  and  lightning,  broke 
and  wholly  destroyed  all  the  costly  mummery  of  death — 
velvet  and  silver  trimmed  catafalque,  shrouds  and  mourn- 
ing housings  of  the  horses,  even  the  expensive  trappings 
of  the  guards  in  mediaeval  gear  and  costume. 

And  when  the  aged  monarch  himself  died  last  winter, 
at  the  ripe  old  age  of  86,  a  similar  but  even  far  more 
extensive  programme  of  solemn  hocuspocus  was  gone 
through  with — everything  according  to  paragraph  so 
and  so,  section  something  or  other,  of  the  statutes  for 
such  cases  made  and  provided.    It  is  like  the  laws  of 


THE  IMPERIAL  COURT  161 

the  Medes  and  the  Persians,  this  unchangeable  code  of 
traditional  lore,  and  the  people  of  the  monarchy  are  so 
used  to  it  that  they  would  feel  deeply  aggrieved  if  every 
tittle  and  letter  of  these  hoary  traditions  were  not  car- 
ried out  to  the  last  point.  Not  but  what  some  of  those 
things  are  not  impressive  and  grand,  even  replete  with 
meaning  of  a  sort.  Thus,  before  the  embalmed  body  of 
Francis  Joseph,  after  undergoing  for  a  week  everything 
else  in  the  way  of  showy  vigils  and  lying  in  state,  could 
finally  enter  its  last  resting  place,  the  crypt  of  the  Habs- 
burgs  in  the  Capuchin  Church  at  Vienna,  a  symbolical 
procedure  reminding  one  strongly  of  a  similar  one  of 
the  ancient  Egyptians,  had  to  be  performed.  The  bier 
with  the  long  train  of  titled  and  highborn  pall  bearers 
having  been  borne  to  the  closed  gate  of  the  crypt,  three 
knocks  were  heard  against  the  iron.  A  knight  in  full 
and  resplendent  armour  demands  entrance.  A  tiny  win- 
dow opens  in  the  gate,  and  a  monk  in  cowl  is  seen  there. 
' '  Who  knocks  ? "  he  says  in  a  low  voice.  ' '  The  body  of  his 
Serene  Majesty,  the  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  of  Austria 
and  King  of  Hungary,  demands  admittance  for  sepul- 
ture," is  the  reply.  "We  know  of  no  such  person  here," 
says  the  sad-eyed  monk.  "Again  I  say:  Who  knocks'?" 
And  then,  with  a  deep  obeisance,  the  shining  knight  makes 
answer  in  humble  tone :  "A  poor  brother,  a  fellow-being, 
seeks  entrance  for  eternal  rest." 

"Enter,"  then  responds  the  monk,  and  throws  wide 
the  gate. 

Again,  it  is  true  that  the  festivities  at  the  Court  of 
Vienna  are  not  only  splendid  in  their  externals  but  have 
a  peculiar  charai  of  their  own.  Once  admitted  within 
the  sacred  circle,  the  hospitality  shown  is  gracious  and 
without  a  tinge  of  ostentatiousness.  Everybody  there 
addresses  the  other,  save  alone  the  members  of  the  im- 


162    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

perial  house,  by  tlie  intimate  German  ^'du/'  the  **thou" 
of  earlier  English,  a  sign  that  all  barriers  of  exclnsive- 
ness  have  now  fallen  for  the  lucky  individual.  Indeed, 
the  ''du''  is  reckoned  as  an  honouring  token  of  equality, 
of  good-will,  not  only  among  the  Austrian  and  Hungarian 
aristocracy,  but  also  with  the  officers  in  the  army,  no 
matter  how  humble  their  original  status  and  family  con- 
nection. But  it  has  truthfully  been  said  that  there  is 
nothing  to  exceed  the  exclusiveness  of  the  Austrian  court 
and  nobility.  It  is  next  to  impossible  for  a  person,  no 
matter  how  wealthy  and  famous,  to  find  admission  save 
on  the  single  ground  of  birth.  Always  excepting,  of 
course,  the  officers  of  the  army.  Their  patent  as  an 
officer  is  also  the  Open,  sesame!  to  every  gathering,  no 
matter  how  high  the  rank. 

To  be,  therefore,  "hoifahig"  {i.e.,  admitted  to  court) 
is  the  highest  distinction  that  can  be  conferred  on  any  one 
in  Austria.  Those  forming  the  upper  crust  strive  eagerly 
for  it  if  there  appears  to  be  any  chance  at  all.  But  the 
Emperor  hunself  has,  as  a  rule,  little  to  say  about  it,  for 
this  thing  is,  like  everything  else  connected  with  court 
life,  reduced  to  rigid  rules  that  none  may  transgress  with 
impunity.  Prince  Montenuovo  (a  direct  descendant,  by 
the  way,  of  Marie  Louise,  Napoleon's  wife,  from  her  sec- 
ond union  with  Count  Neipperg)  for  many  years  was  the 
severe  and  exacting  arbiter  in  these  matters  in  his  role 
of  chief  master  of  ceremonies,  together  with  his  collabor- 
ator, the  chief  chamberlain  of  the  emperor.  This  man 
Montenuovo  was  perfectly  incorruptible.  He  is  known 
to  have  rejected  fabulous  sums  with  which  certain  men 
(among  them  a  well-known  Crcesus  of  the  bourse,  since 
created  a  baron)  sought  to  bribe  him.  He  is  known  to 
have  argued  successfully  even  with  his  master,  the  em- 
peror, when  a  candidate  (or  his  wife)  did  not  meet  his 


THE  IMPERIAL  COURT  163 

own  high  requirements.  Well,  things  are  bound  to  alter 
in  this  regard  under  the  milder  sway  of  the  present  young 
empress,  Zita  of  Parma,  a  charming  young  lady  of  Italian 
stock,  very  good-hearted  and  with  her  husband  far  more 
democratic  than  any  previous  wearer  of  the  ancient 
crown. 

The  House  of  Habsburg  counts  at  this  writing  all  told 
some  170  members — men,  women  and  children.  After  the 
extinction  of  the  original  main,  male  stock,  in  1739,  the 
marriage  of  the  daughter  of  Emperor  Charles  VI,  Maria 
Theresa,  with  Francis  of  Lorraine  brought  the  still  reign- 
ing branch  of  the  dynasty,  the  Habsburg-Lorrainers,  to 
power.  Beside  them  there  are  several  collateral 
branches,  the  Toscana  line,  the  Este  line  (partly  of  Ital- 
ian derivation)  the  Neapolitan  and  the  Parma  line.  Of 
all  these  it  is  doubtless  the  Toscana  line  (comprising 
about  thirty  members  in  all)  which  displays  the  greatest 
ability,  both  physical  and  mental.  One  of  the  daughters 
of  the  late  emperor  became  the  wife  of  one  of  these  Tos- 
cana agnates.  His  name  is  Francis  Salvator,  and  his 
wife,  the  Archduchess  Marie  Valerie,  while  always  her  fa- 
ther's favourite  child,  shows  little  of  the  personal  charm 
of  her  mother,  the  lamented  Elisabeth  who  fell  a  victim 
to  an  Italian  anarchist's  dagger.  Francis  Salvator  him- 
self has  exerted  himself  greatly  throughout  the  war  as 
head  of  the  Austrian  Red  Cross  society.  He  has  not 
alone  sacrificed  in  that  pursuit  his  own  and  his  wife's 
large  revenues,  but  it  has  been  due  to  his  personal  ap- 
peals and  strenuous  efforts  mainly  that  the  required 
enormous  funds  have  been  raised.  Again  and  again  he 
has  gone  to  the  front,  organising  and  looking  after 
things;  he  has  accompanied,  more  than  once,  trainloads 
of  sick  or  wounded  soldiers ;  he  has  been  chiefly  instru- 
mental in  starting  and  equipping  sanitary  stations  some 


164    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

distance  behind  the  fronts,  one  at  the  Hungarian  border 
in  the  Carpathians,  and  two  each  at  the  Galician  and 
Italian  front.  These  stations,  now  running  some  thirty 
months,  have  done  most  in  preventing  the  spread  of  in- 
fectious diseases  and  war  epidemics  like  spotted  typhoid, 
cholera  and  bubonic  pest,  and  of  smallpox  in  the  hinter- 
land. 

The  present  emperor  and  king  is  a  frank,  wholesouled, 
modest  and  personally  very  charming  young  man  whom 
(quite  some  time  before  his  accession)  it  was  my  good 
fortune  to  meet  several  times.  As  yet  he  is  inexperi- 
enced and  life  may  perhaps  so  deal  with  him  as  to  make 
something  quite  different  out  of  him  than  he  is  now. 
Crowned  heads  are  apt  to  turn  out  in  the  end  other  than 
even  wise  men  expected.  History  is  full  of  such  cases, 
from  the  days  of  Alexander  the  Great  and  Nero  to  times 
much  more  recent.  But  one  thing,  it  is  pretty  safe  to 
say,  time  will  not  make  of  Carl,  emperor  and  king.  He 
is  not  made  of  that  stern  stuff  out  of  which  great  rulers 
are  carved.  I  saw  him,  not  a  great  while  ago,  trundle 
a  baby  carriage  on  the  gravel  paths  of  the  Hofburg 
castle  park,  his  wife  walking  by  his  side.  He  wore  a 
typically  Austrian  smile  of  placid  good-nature,  a  regular 
paterfamilias  smile.  It  was  during  the  days  when  his 
aged  granduncle,  Francis  Joseph,  was  still  bearing  the 
burden  of  the  crowm.  The  young  heir  to  it  was  home  from 
the  front  on  a  short  leave,  mainly  to  see  what  his  young- 
est-born, that  had  woke  to  the  light  of  this  queer  world 
during  his  father's  absence,  was  like — and  outside  the 
iron  railing  gay  Vienna  was  passing  back  and  forth  on 
the  Ringstrasse,  many  stopping  for  a  moment  or  two 
to  enjoy  this  idyllic  picture  of  young  wedded  bliss.  Thor- 
oughly unaffected  and  urbane  the  then  Archduke  Carl 
looked.     From  all  accounts  that  is  part  of  his  nature. 


THE  IMPERIAL  COURT  165 

At  the  Italian  front,  a  year  ago,  the  soldiers  all  adored 
him.  He  would  stop  and  light  his  own  cigarette  on  that 
of  a  common  fighting  man.  No  pretence  of  superiority; 
quite  simple  and  democratic.  He  would  chat  with  any  of 
the  men,  ask  them  the  news  from  home,  about  how  they 
fared,  made  them  tell  their  troubles,  their  joys,  their 
private  alfairs.  To  each  he  spoke  in  his  native  tongue, 
whether  Slav  or  German  or  Magyar.  A  thoroughly 
amiable  character.  He  would  share  the  meal  of  any 
small  group  in  the  trenches,  would  snitf  the  succulent 
gidyas  approvingly,  and  display  a  healthy  appetite  in 
eating  it. 

In  all  this  he  has  more  from  his  father  than  his  mother. 
His  father,  Archduke  Otto,  though  he  led  a  rather  repre- 
hensible life,  was  extremely  popular.  He  was  strikingly 
handsome — a  tall,  powerfully  built  man,  swarthy,  with 
hair  and  beard  of  raven  black.  They  had  made  him 
marry  the  Princess  Maria  Josefa,  sister  to  the  present 
King  of  Saxony  whose  marital  troubles  for  years  af- 
forded much  gossip.  Maria  Josefa  did  not  know  how  to 
manage  her  wild  husband.  He  never  cared  for  her  and 
was  continually  indulging  in  escapades.  Many  of  these 
you  can  still  hear  about  in  Vienna.  One  which  led  to  his 
being  in  disgrace  with  his  uncle,  as  head  of  the  House 
of  Habsburg,  for  quite  a  while,  was  indeed  an  almost 
unpardonable  freak  of  reckness  deviltry.  Coming  home, 
with  a  cavalcade  of  roystering  boon  companions,  from 
a  suburban  resort  where  they  all  had  dined  not  wisely 
but  too  well,  they  met  a  citizen  funeral  cortege,  and  the 
young  Archduke,  fired  with  a  noble  postprandial  ambi- 
tion, instantly  wagered  that  his  horse,  the  Hungarian 
blooded  mare  Euryanthe,  could  ''take"  the  coffin.  Before 
any  one  could  stop  him,  hep-hep-halloo,  he  and  the  horse 
went  over — to  the  intense  scandal  of  the  old  priest  head- 


166    AUSTRIA-HUNG AEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

ing  the  mourners.  The  priest,  too,  that  very  day  saw  to 
it  that  the  old  emperor  was  informed  of  the  matter,  and 
a  rather  violent  scene  is  said  to  have  ensued  between 
uncle  and  nephew.  Things  went  on  from  bad  to  worse 
with  Otto.  Exiled  for  a  time,  Otto  returned  from  a 
trip  to  foreign  parts  with  the  seeds  of  a  lingering  and 
painful,  as  well  as  in  the  end  fatal  disease  in  his  blood. 
During  its  last  stages  the  quondam  good-looking  sprig 
of  effete  royalty  had  to  wear  a  mask  in  front  of  his  face 
to  hide  the  ravages  of  the  frightful  disorder  from  the 
public,  his  nose  being  completely  gone.  At  a  compara- 
tively early  age,  less  than  44,  he  succumbed  to  the  ail- 
ment, leaving  two  young  sons,  of  whom  the  present  mon- 
arch is  the  elder,  and  a  widow  who  from  the  disillusion- 
ment of  life  had  sought  consolation  in  a  rigid  observance 
of  religious  rites.  A  devout  Catholic,  a  fond  mother, 
an  angel  of  charity  that  brought  succour  wherever  cases 
came  to  her  ken,  the  Archduchess  Maria  Josefa,  whose 
taU  and  somewhat  obese  figure  lacks  distinction,  with  a 
rather  austere  demeanour,  has  never  been  liked  by  the 
Austrians,  the  ways  of  the  latter  differing  so  much  from 
hers,  while,  as  I  said,  they  condoned  willingly  all  the 
faults  of  her  wayward  husband,  merely  because  his  out- 
ward bearing  was  debonair  and  because  his  failings  were 
typically  Austrian.  However,  she  educated  her  two  sons 
as  well  as  she  could.  At  that  time  nobody  foresaw,  of 
course,  that  Carl  was  ever  to  ascend  the  throne,  his 
uncle,  Francis  Ferdinand,  being  in  the  prime  and  vigour 
of  manhood.  The  younger  brother  of  the  present  em- 
peror, Maximilian  (Max  for  short),  chose  the  study  of 
law  for  a  favourite  pursuit,  a  unique  case  in  the  Habs- 
burg  family  chronicles.  He  is  now  a  full-fledged  doctor 
of  laws,  having  also  passed  the  **  state  examination"  with 


THE  IMPERIAL  COURT  167 

distinction,  although,  of  course,  he  is  not  actually  prac- 
tising his  profession. 

If  I  were  so  inclined  I  could  easily  fill  a  whole  book 
with  scandal  of  the  court  of  Vienna  and  of  the  House  of 
Habsburg.  Surely  there  is  enough  of  the  kind  even 
if  one  confined  himself  to  none  but  authentic  stories. 
But  that  is  not  my  purpose,  and  enough,  even  more  than 
enough,  has  already  been  printed  of  such  matters.  I 
cited  the  aforegoing  few  cases  solely  because  they  really 
belong  to  a  characterisation  of  this  most  ancient  court 
in  existence,  a  court  which  events  in  the  near  future  may 
snuff  out  completely,  as  being  a  relic  of  the  past  not  fit 
to  survive. 

However,  among  the  Habsburgs  of  the  day  there  are 
quite  a  number  not  only  highly  respectable  and  full  of 
the  homely  and  domestic  virtues  of  humbler  folk,  but 
also  some  men  of  ability.  It  is  not  possible,  with  space 
requirements,  to  furnish  in  every  case  details  which,  in 
themselves,  might  prove  of  interest  to  the  reader.  But 
I  will  skim  the  surface  at  least,  lingering  here  and  there 
for  a  moment,  without  laying  claim  to  exhausting  my 
theme. 

One  of  the  most  sympathetic  of  these  Habsburgs  is  the 
Archduke  Leopold  Salvator.  For  a  space  of  fifteen 
months  he  was  my  close  neighbour,  so  close  indeed  that 
I  used  to  meet  him  or  members  of  his  large  family  every 
day.  He  belongs  to  the  Toscana  branch  and  is  51  years 
of  age.  His  wife,  Donna  Blanca,  is  the  daughter  of  the 
late  pretender  to  the  throne  of  Spain,  Don  Carlos.  The 
couple  have  ten  children,  five  of  each  sex.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  the  smallest,  a  youngster  of  six,  the  boys  have 
all  gone  to  the  front — as  simple  privates  at  first,  gain- 
ing promotion,  one  at  the  tender  age  of  only  sixteen,  by 
conspicuous  gallantry.    Their  father  has  been  filling,  for 


168    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

a  number  of  years  before  the  war,  and  is  still  holding, 
the  very  important  post  of  inspector  of  the  entire  artil- 
lery for  the  Austro-Hungarian  army  and  navy.  In  that 
capacity  he  strove  hard  to  obtain  from  the  two  parlia- 
ments grants  sufficient  and  in  time  to  construct  those 
heavy  ordnance  which  all  military  experts  had  predicted 
would  be  indispensably  needed  in  the  next  great  war. 
His  efforts  proved  in  vain;  at  least  the  appropriations 
were  made  too  late  and  in  amount  quite  insufficient. 
Archduke  Leopold  Salvator,  though  personally  strongly 
averse  to  war,  had  all  along  been  convinced  that  such  a 
great  war,  with  all  Europe  for  long  resembling  a  pow- 
der magazine,  was  bound  to  come.  On  an  understanding 
with  the  aged  emperor,  but  unknown  to  either  the  Hun- 
garian or  Austrian  parliament  (except  a  few  members 
in  his  confidence),  the  archduke  managed  to  have  those 
much-needed  heavy  guns  made,  mostly  at  the  Skoda 
Works  in  Pilsen;  to  have  them  tested  thoroughly  and 
installed  in  the  army.  These  were,  I  scarcely  have  to 
point  out,  the  marvellous  30.5  centimetre  howitzers  and 
the  42-centimetre  mortars  that  played  such  a  decisive 
part  in  the  early  days  of  the  war.  They  had  been  de- 
signed, made  and  tested  wholly  without  the  connivance, 
even  the  knowledge,  of  the  German  general  staff.  Of  this 
and  other  details  I  speak  with  full  possession  of  the  facts. 
Liege,  it  may  be  recalled,  fell  before  these  Austrian  guns, 
and  the  quick  capture  of  Antwerp  was  also  largely  due 
to  them.  Throughout  this  long  war  Archduke  Leopold 
Salvator  has  contributed  enormously,  by  his  special 
gifts,  to  the  success  of  the  Austrian  and  Hungarian  ar- 
tillery. 

And  this  same  Archduke  Leopold  Salvator  I  met,  on 
the  day  war  was  declared  on  Russia,  under  circumstances 
which  impressed  me  deeply.    It  was  on  a  hot,  sunny  day. 


THE  IMPEEIAL  COURT  169 

and  I  was  out  for  a  stroll  to  the  shady  woods  but  a  few 
minutes'  distance  from  my  little  house.  The  road  lay  in 
the  glare  of  the  sun,  and  as  I  neared  a  bend  in  it  facing 
the  extensive  palace  of  the  archducal  family  and  the 
grounds  in  front  of  it,  I  was  almost  blinded  by  the  light. 
Thus  it  was  I  came  unawares  on  a  picturesque  scene.  At 
various  points  along  his  orchards  and  vineyards  (slop- 
ing toward  the  valley  down  to  Vienna  proper)  and  paths 
Donna  Blanca,  the  archduke's  Spanish  and  pious  spouse, 
had  caused  tall  rustic  shrines  and  crucifixes  to  be  erected 
for  the  wayfarer  and  the  help  of  the  house  to  stop  and 
say  an  ave  or  two.  And  before  one  of  these  the  stately 
figure  of  the  archduke  was  kneeling  in  the  dust  of  the 
road,  with  the  sun  beating  down  on  his  bared  head.  I 
halted  and  removed  my  own  hat.  Beside  his  master  knelt 
the  chauffeur,  a  sturdy  Pole  from  Cracow,  his  lips  like- 
wise moving  in  silent  prayer.  Not-  heeding  my  pres- 
ence the  archduke  continued  in  his  devotions  for  another 
rapt  five  minutes.  Then  he  slowly  rose,  his  face  pale 
and  twitching.  My  salute  he  answered  by  a  motion  bid- 
ding me  to  approach. 

"The  emperor  has  just  sent  me  word  that  war  was 
declared  on  Russia  two  hours  ago,"  he  said  gravely  and 
in  a  low  tense  voice. 

"And  your  imperial  highness  has  just  said  a  prayer 
for  the  success  of  the  Austro-Hungarian  arms?"  I  ven- 
tured to  remark. 

The  archduke  shook  his  head.  "No,  not  that,"  he  then 
murmured,  as  though  to  himself.  ' '  I  have  prayed  to  God 
for  peace.  I  fear  it  will  be  an  awful  war,  a  long  war — 
weary  months,  perhaps  years." 

"Years?"  I  said. 

"Yes,  years — I  am  afraid  so — years."  And  with  that 
he  dismissed  me. 


170    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIEE 

''Years,"  he  had  said,  ''years."  I  think  he  was  about 
the  only  one  in  Vienna  whose  ideas  gi^asped  the  fearful 
situation.  For  during  the  first  burst  of  war  fever  no- 
body I  heard  anywhere  calculated  the  war  to  last  longer 
than  a  few  months.  That,  too,  seemed  to  be  the  gen- 
eral impression  in  all  the  belligerent  countries. 

Another  eminently  wholesome  and  well-meaning  mem- 
ber of  the  imperial  house  is  Archduke  Frederick,  who  by 
reason  of  the  physical  incapacity  and  advanced  age  of 
the  emperor  was  appointed,  at  the  very  outset  of  the  war, 
acting  commander-in-chief  of  all  the  armed  forces  of 
Austria-Hungary.  Greatly  liked  and  esteemed  through- 
out the  monarchy  for  his  sterling  character,  his  equable 
and  cheerful  disposition,  his  admitted  impartiality  on  all 
questions  of  race  and  politics;  married  to  an  excellent 
German  wife  (the  Bavarian  princess  Isabella)  and  on 
the  best  of  terms  with  the  powerful  ally  and  friend,  the 
Emperor  William  II,  furthermore  of  enormous  wealth 
(estimated  at  about  350,000,000  Austrian  crowns,  say, 
$70,000,000  at  the  normal  rate  of  exchange),  and  im- 
bued with  a  strong  sentiment  of  duty  and  patriotism,  this 
man  seemed  to  be  the  fitting  incumbent  for  this  all-im- 
portant post.  Ever  smiling  and  of  excellent  humour, 
with  an  iron  constitution  that  made  him  withstand  the 
privations  and  hardships  of  war  (for  he,  too,  very  often 
had  his  headquarters  under  the  thatched  roof  of  a  peas- 
ant's cottage,  eating  the  plain  fare  of  the  soldier,  after 
eighteen  hours  of  the  twenty-four  rattling  along  rough 
roads  in  his  auto),  this  sturdy  and  easy-going  gentleman 
of  sixty  did  the  best  he  knew  how.  Of  mediocre  intel- 
lect and  of  but  slight  experience  in  actual  warfare,  like- 
wise a  trifling  too  yielding  to  personal  influences  brought 
to  bear  on  him,  he  proved,  though,  in  the  long  run  and 
under  the  adverse  conditions  that  he  had  to  face  in  this 


THE  IMPERIAL  COURT  171 

grim  and  relentless  struggle  for  the  further  existence  of 
what  the  Habsburgs  have  always  looked  upon  as  their 
patrimony,  not  quite  able  to  cope  with  overwhelming 
difficulties.  In  every  other  respect  this  elderly  cousin  of 
the  late  emperor  was  above  reproach.  His  courage  and 
confidence  were  unfailing.  His  liberality  was  boundless 
towards  the  army.  From  his  vast  and  highly  productive 
estates  in  Silesia,  Moravia  and  Hungary  he  furnished 
all  the  while,  free  and  as  a  contribution  out  of  his  own 
means,  nearly  all  their  produce  in  cereals,  milk,  cheese, 
bacon,  etc. ;  even  his  famed  distillery  (located  at  Teschen, 
Austrian  Silesia)  sent  to  the  army  commissariat  all  the 
table  liquor,  especially  sUvovic  (plum  brandy)  and 
hummel.  His  bounty  has  gladdened  the  heart  and 
strengthened  the  stomach  of  innumerable  of  his  soldiers. 
And  his  whole  family,  from  his  wife  to  his  youngest 
daughter,  has  devoted  itself  to  Red  Cross  and  other  good 
work.  One  of  the  maiden  daughters,  as  Sister  Irmgard, 
is  a  Red  Cross  nurse,  and  a  very  efficient  and  gentle  one 
at  that. 

Perhaps  a  few  words  relative  to  the  late  emperor  may 
be  proper  here,  especially  as  these  refer  to  points  not 
generally  appreciated.  Francis  Joseph  became  ruler  of 
a  composite  realm  at  the  early  age  of  18,  after  his  uncle, 
the  Emperor  Ferdinand,  had  been  unwilling  to  capitu- 
late to  the  revolution  of  1848,  yet  unable  to  check  it.  The 
youth  undertook  the  hard  task  of  bringing  order  out 
of  chaos  not  with  the  proverbial  rashness  of  his  age, 
but  rather  under  the  domination  of  his  strong-minded 
and  intensely  ambitious  mother,  the  Archduchess  Sophia. 
He  not  only  succumbed  to  her  paramount  influence  but 
he  remained  under  it  until  her  death.  In  fact,  he  was 
afraid  of  her.  She  determined  all  great  matters  of  state 
for  him;  he  married  the  wife  she  had  picked;  he  went 


172    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

to  the  front,  in  1848,  in  Italy  and  received  his  baptism 
of  fire  at  Ste.  Lucia  to  humour  her;  he  coped  with  the 
rising  in  Hungary  and  drowned  it  finally,  with  the  active 
aid  of  Nicholas  of  Russia,  in  blood  at  her  command ;  and 
finally,  the  Ausgleich  with  Hungary  in  1867,  she  also  per- 
suaded him  to  accept. 

The  late  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  was  a  man  of  nar- 
row but  intensely  honest  mind.  In  that  he  was  a  thor- 
ough Habsburg.  That  race  has,  with  a  couple  of  excep- 
tions, within  650  years,  bred  none  but  men  of  that  descrip- 
tion— narrow  but  honest.  He  never  shirked  what  he  con- 
ceived to  be  his  duty.  Otherwise  his  nature  was  rather 
shallow  as  well.  The  world  has  admired  this  man  who 
stood  up  undaunted  under  all  the  strokes  of  adversity 
and  personal  sorrow.  And  in  a  sense  this  admiration 
was  well  bestowed.  But  to  a  man  of  his  peculiar  moral 
and  mental  construction  such  steadfastness  and  robust 
persistency  came  easy.  He  did  not  feel  deeply.  His  pa- 
tience was  very  largely  obstinacy.  His  tastes  were  sim- 
ple— a  soldier's  campaign  tastes.  Very  true.  But  that 
was  only  because  he  was  unable  to  relish  higher  or  more 
resthetic  joys.  The  tragedy  of  his  family  life — the  bit- 
ter estrangement  from  his  finely  attuned,  high-strung 
wife,  the  jealousy  of  and  tyranny  over  his  highly  en- 
dowed only  son  Rudolph — was  largely  of  his  own  crea- 
tion. He  was  mentally  and  morally  unable  to  fathom 
such  complex  natures  as  those  of  wife  and  son,  and  be- 
ing unable  to  do  so  broke  them.  His  marital  infidelity, 
notorious  in  Vienna  but  forgiven,  nay  applauded,  be- 
cause in  this  he  was  a  true  Viennese,  did  not  weigh  on  his 
soul.  But  it  bred  a  horrible  disillusionment  in  his  wife's 
heart,  a  feeling  akin  to  physical  and  moral  aversion.  The 
grosser  appetites  ruled  him  until  his  last  hour.  His  dis- 
graceful connection  with  Kathi  Schratt,  the  actress,  en- 


THE  IMPERIAL  COURT  173 

dured  through  all  his  griefs  and  pangs,  and  superseded 
all  other  attractions.  He  was  a  man  with  the  fleshly  pas- 
sions of  a  Louis  XV,  who  like  him  was  the  hien-aime,  the 
well-beloved  of  his  people.  But  that  was  in  the  18th  cen- 
tury, and  this  in  the  19th.  Kindly  by  instinct  he  was, 
surely;  but  it  was  the  surface  kindliness  of  an  ordinary 
nature.  There  is  nothing  in  all  the  innumerable  anec- 
dotes the  people  of  Vienna  tell  of  him  that  might  be 
classed  as  high-mindedness,  although  the  soldier's 
generous  appreciation  of  a  foe  worthy  of  his  steel  he  did 
have  in  a  high  degree. 

Perhaps  the  basest  thing  Francis  Joseph  did  in  his  life 
— and  this  was  towards  the  close  of  it — was  his  treat- 
ment of  the  children  of  his  cousin,  Archduke  Ernst.  It 
is  a  story  worth  telling,  an  unusual  story.  This  Arch- 
duke Ernst  was  something  rather  different  from  the 
typical  Habsburg.  He  was  shy,  an  artist  by  heart,  a 
bachelor,  mortally  afraid  of  his  sovereign  and  cousin. 
Of  course,  being  a  Habsburg  he  had  to  hold  a  rank 
in  the  army.  His  garrison  town  for  a  certain  time 
was  Laibach,  in  Carniola.  And  there  he  met  and  fell  in 
love  with  a  charming  lady  of  good  family,  but  living  in 
somewhat  humble  circumstances.  He  wooed  and  won 
her,  but  only  in  the  good  old-fashioned  way— with  a  ring 
on  her  finger  and  a  wedding  ceremony  in  church,  per- 
formed by  the  parish  priest  of  those  days.  For  all  that 
happened  long  ago.  Now  the  Archduke  Ernst  had  a  for- 
tune estimated  at  his  death  at  about  $2,000,000  in  Ameri- 
can money.  His  "morganatic"  wife  (for  the  groom,  fear- 
ing his  cousin,  had  not  attempted  to  obtain  the  permis- 
sion and  sanction  to  the  union,  as  he  ought  to  have  done 
under  the  family  rules  of  the  House  of  Habsburg)  knew 
all  this,  for  her  highborn  husband  had  often  explained 
it  to  her.    But  she  also  knew  that  her  marriage  was  per- 


174    AUSTRIA-HUNG AEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

fectly  valid  under  the  civil  and  ecclesiastic  laws  of  Aus- 
tria. The  children  she  had  borne  him  were,  therefore, 
also  legitimate  offspring,  entitled  to  all  their  father  might 
leave  them  on  his  demise.  "Wlien  the  archduke  died  about 
ten  years  ago  the  wife  had  preceded  him  by  a  few  years. 
Rather  dreading  sinister  court  influences  that  might  suc- 
ceed in  cheating  his  children  out  of  all  or  part  of  their 
inheritance.  Archduke  Ernst,  during  his  latter  days,  con- 
sulted his  brother,  Archduke  Rainier,  as  well  as  other 
relatives  and  friends,  and  finally,  too,  a  lawyer  of  note. 
Baron  Gianelia.  The  latter,  treacherously,  confided  the 
story  to  the  old  emperor.  When  Archduke  Ernst  finally 
did  die,  a  testament  was  found  bequeathing  the  bulk  of 
his  vast  fortune  to  his  four  children,  three  daughters  and 
one  son.  The  son  had  risen  to  the  rank  of  major  in  the 
regular  army,  and  the  daughters  were  married.  All  four 
lived  in  rather  straitened  circumstances.  The  lawyer, 
Baron  Gianelia,  however,  acting  for  what  is  known  as 
the  Habsburg  court  chamber,  and  under  instructions 
from  the  aged  emperor,  set  up  the  claim,  (1)  that  no  real 
valid  marriage  had  ever  taken  place;  that  (2)  the  four 
children  were  bastards  and  entitled  to  nothing;  and  (3) 
that  the  whole  estate  of  the  late  Archduke  Ernst,  there 
being  no  nearer  relative,  must  go  to  the  brother  of  de- 
ceased. Archduke  Rainier,  himself  a  childless  octogena- 
rian. Under  all  sorts  of  pressure  the  children,  all  but 
one,  relinquished  their  claim,  some  small  sums  being  paid 
them  for  compensation.  But  one  of  the  daughters,  hav- 
ing children  of  her  own  and  being  both  unwilling  to  have 
the  stigma  of  illegitimacy  attached  to  herself  and  to  have 
the  children  done  out  of  what  she  rightfully  considered 
her  share  of  the  estate  of  her  father  (who,  some  time  be- 
fore his  death,  specifically  acknowledged  her  and  prom- 
ised her  ample  redress  in  the  financial  way) ,  went  to  law. 


THE  IMPERIAL  COURT  175 

That  lawsuit  was  about  the  most  despicable  subversion 
of  justice  that  can  be  conceived.  It  went  through  all  the 
stages  of  chicanery,  backed  by  the  highest  influences  in 
state  and  court.  The  upshot  was  that  the  plaintiff,  al- 
though she  had  made  a  mother's  heroic  fight  for  her  own 
good  name  and  the  rights  of  her  children,  and  although 
in  the  long  course  of  it  several  of  the  judges  having  a 
hand  in  the  various  decisions  were  upright  enough  rather 
to  resign  their  office  than  submit  to  the  insidious  influ- 
ences at  work,  the  upshot  of  it  all,  I  say,  was  that  the 
poor  woman  lost  her  cause  and  broke  her  heart.  It  was 
a  sad  case ;  it  was  a  frightful  miscarriage  of  justice,  and 
if  not  entirely,  at  least  partially,  the  aged  emperor  was 
responsible  for  it. 

Singularly  enough,  outside  Austria-Hungary  the  fact 
has  scarcely  ever  received  mention  that  the  younger 
brother  of  the  late  emperor.  Archduke  Carl  Ludwig, 
though  close  to  eighty  himself,  is  still  alive.  Nor  does 
it  seem  to  be  known  that  this  Carl  Ludwig  for  many  years 
had  been  handled  very  severely  by  his  august  brother 
and  sovereign.  The  latter  fact,  though,  is  scarcely  to 
be  wondered  at,  for  Carl  Ludwig  has  not  only  shown  him- 
self all  through  life  scarcely  better  than  an  idiot,  but 
also  morally  a  defective.  He  never  married.  Francis 
Joseph  banished  him  from  court,  many  years  ago,  and 
the  last  heard  from  this  sprig  of  royalty  he  was  still 
steeped  in  senile  debauchery. 

A  peculiar  position  within  the  dynasty  is  occupied  by 
the  Archdukes  Carl  Stephan  and  Joseph.  The  latter  is 
kno-^vn  far  and  wide  as  the  ''Magyar  archduke,"  and  the 
former  as  the  "Pole,"  owing  to  their  racial  and  political 
affiliations.  Joseph  is  the  only  member  of  the  Habsburg 
family  that  bears  the  Magyars  sincere  affection.  With 
his  wife,  the  Archduchess  Augusta,  he  has  resided,  fill 


176    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

the  beginning  of  the  war,  at  the  royal  castle  in  Buda. 
Throughout  the  war  he  has  commanded  one  or  more  Hun- 
garian army  corps.    He  has  endeared  himself  to  the  Mag- 
yars in  every  way.    His  household  is  run  according  to 
Hungarian  notions.    Only  Magyar  is  spoken  there.    He 
is  eloquent  and  his  frequent  speeches  have  always  been 
intensely  patriotic — from  the  Hungarian  point  of  view. 
Many  people  say  that  he  aims  at  wearing  the  crown  of 
an  independent  Hungary  some  day.    With  the  late  em- 
peror and  king  he  was  never  a  favourite.    He  shows  the 
typical  Magyar  spirit  and  is  thoroughly  sjmipathetic  to 
the  men  of  Hungary.    As  a  soldier  he  has  showm  in  this 
war  no  great  qualities  either  as  a  strategist  or  tactician, 
but  to  compensate  for  that  fully  in  the  eyes  of  his  Mag- 
yar soldiers  he  has  throughout  given  evidence  of  reck- 
less daring,  of  indomitable  valour.    Scores  of  times  he 
has  exposed  himself  to  death  in  the  foremost  trenches. 
He  was  wounded  twice.    He  has  gone  into  battle  in  the 
ranks,  armed,  like  his  men,  with  hand  grenades.     He 
has  treated  his  men  on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality.    In 
short,  he  was,  and  is,  the  apple  of  his  eye  for  the  Hun- 
garian fighter.    His  wife,  the  Archduchess  Augusta,  is 
at  the  head  of  the  Hungarian  Red  Cross,  and  has  likewise 
done  wonders  in  her  own  womanly  way. 

Archduke  Carl  Stephan  again  has  long  been  the  chief 
candidate  for  the  crown  of  a  reconstructed  Poland.  At 
least  so  far  as  the  Poles  of  Galicia  can  determine  that 
issue.  For  with  the  Austrian  Poles,  i.e.,  the  Poles  of 
Galicia,  he  is  immensely  popular.  To  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses he  and  his  whole  family  are  Polish— though  in  the 
matter  of  descent  that  is  only  partially  the  case.  His 
chief  residential  quarters  are  at  Saybusch,  where  he 
owns  a  vast  and  splendid  estate  and  where  everything, 
from  roof  to  cellar  is  Polish— servants,  guests,  admin- 


THE  IMPERIAL  COURT  177 

istration,  vernacular,  etc.,  etc.  By  every  means  Carl 
Stephan,  a  man  of  about  50,  has  emphasised  his  love  for 
the  Poles.  His  wife  is  the  Archduchess  Maria  Theresa, 
who  owns  a  large  and  fine  palace  in  the  diplomatic  quar- 
ter of  Vienna,  and  who  during  the  war  has  tirelessly  or- 
ganised aid  for  those  soldiers  become  blind  through 
illness  or  wounds  received  in  action.  But  her  own  ample 
means,  as  well  as  those  of  her  husband,  have  gone  mostly 
to  the  equipment  and  relief  of  the  Polish  Legion  that 
was  started  three  years  ago  to  fight  for  ultimate  inde- 
pendence under  the  eagles  of  Austria.  Of  her  daughters, 
two  are  married  to  Poles  of  historic  names,  viz..  Prince 
Radziwill  and  Prince  Czartoryski.  Unfortunately  for 
the  ambitions  of  Carl  Stephan,  he  is  not  in  the  good 
books  of  Emperor  William.  In  fact,  that  monarch  con- 
siders him  an  unsafe  man,  he  having,  on  several  occa- 
sions, shown  his  sympathy  with  the  Polish  subjects  of 
Prussia  a  bit  too  plainly.  At  any  rate,  the  project  of 
making  Carl  Stephan  constitutional  ruler  of  recreated 
Poland  is  still  in  abeyance  and  seems  to  hang  fire  of  late. 
It  deserves  comment  that  the  House  of  Habsburg,  in- 
dependent of  means  (called  "appanage"),  voted  by  the 
Austrian  parliament  and  of  others  come  to  them  in  their 
individual  capacity,  derives  the  largest  portion  of  its 
income  from  the  so-called  Habsburg  Fund,  an  accumu- 
lation of  several  centuries.  There  are  several  other 
funds,  such  as  the  Este  Fund,  which  are  reserved  exclu- 
sively to  those  branches  of  the  dynasty.  But  the  Habs- 
burg Fund  is  by  far  the  most  considerable.  It  is  esti- 
mated at  about  500  millions,  and  consists  in  lands,  estates, 
interest-bearing  papers,  mines  and  tenements.  To  an 
annual  share  of  the  proceeds  of  this  fund  every  member 
of  the  Habsburg  family  is  entitled,  so  that — if  it  came  to 
the  worst — none  of  them  will  have  to  go  a-begging.    The 


178    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

emperor,  through  an  administrator  appointed  by  him, 
has  the  management  and  disposal  of  it.  Several  mem- 
bers of  the  house,  however,  have  relinquished  their  claim 
to  it.  One  of  these  is  the  Archduke  Frederick,  the  wealth- 
iest individual  Habsburg,  with  the  exception  of  the  em- 
peror himself.  The  Este  and  some  other  separate  funds, 
such  as  the  Toscana  and  Parma  one,  originate  from  the 
time  when  the  Habsburgs  held  a  portion  of  Northern  or 
Central  Italy,  such  as  Lombardy,  Venetia,  Modena, 
Parma,  and  Tuscany.  When  they  left,  under  the  im- 
pulse of  a  revolutionary  rising  of  their  dear  subjects,  a 
settlement  was  made  and  a  fund  created  for  the  dispos- 
sessed rulers  and  their  kin  and  descendants.  Thus,  Zita, 
the  present  empress,  enjoys  certain  separate  revenues 
from  the  Este  fund;  so  do  her  brothers,  the  Princes 
Elias  and  Isidore.  None  of  the  House  of  Habsburg  is 
poor,  although  some  are  vastly  wealthier  than  others. 
Inheritances  and  legacies  are  constantly  swelling  the 
bulk.  The  appropriations  voted  by  the  Austrian  parlia- 
ment (for  the  Hungarian  one  votes  none,  except  for  the 
king  himself)  are  not  very  large  per  head,  it  is  true,  but 
in  the  aggregate  they  amount  to  a  big  sum. 

The  Austrian  people,  nevertheless,  view  their  court 
rather  leniently;  all  except  the  rabid  socialists  who  in- 
veigh against  these  "Tagediehe"  (loafers)  rather  fre- 
quently in  the  columns  of  their  party  press.  At  least 
they  did  before  the  establishment  of  strict  censorship, 
since  which  they  are  gagged,  of  course.  However,  the 
great  majority  of  the  Austrians  look  upon  the  Vienna 
court  and  the  whole  djmasty  with  good-natured  indul- 
gence. Since  they  are  fond  of  show  and  splendour,  of 
glittering  court  festivities  and  handsome  horses  and  turn- 
outs, they  consider  that  by  paying  the  piper  they  also 
earn  the  right  of  being  interested  spectators.    Thus,  they 


THE  IMPERIAL  COURT  179 

unfailingly  throng  streets  and  parks  and  squares  when 
anything  is  going  on  at  court  of  special  moment.  In  the 
crowds  are  always  some  court  flunkies  or  others  ac- 
quainted with  the  details,  and  these  shout  out  informa- 
tion for  the  general  benefit,  often  almost  in  the  face  of 
imperial  or  royal  personages  tliemselves.  That  is  done 
sometimes  in  a  naive  manner  that  must  be,  I  should  im- 
agine, rather  embarrassing  to  those  criticised.  Thus,  I 
remember  on  the  occasion  of  Kaiser  William's  visit  a 
year  ago,  at  the  comer  of  the  Ringstrasse  where  his  coach 
and  six  turned  off  towards  Schonbrunn,  one  ubiquitous 
woman  (evidently  possessed  of  inside  facts)  shrieked  out 
in  a  shrill  voice  such  bits  of  information  about  the  Kaiser 
as:  ''He's  wearing  a  new  uniform  of  the  Hungarian 
hussars";  ''he's  got  his  mustache  waxed  tight";  "he 
looks  thin  and  worried,  no  wonder,"  and  so  forth.  And 
all  so  that  he  must  have  heard  every  word.  I  could  never 
discover  in  such  motley  Austrian  crowds  any  trace  or 
hint  of  a  longing  to  be  rid  of  such  monarchic  trappings, 
or  any  leanings  toward  republican  forms  of  govern- 
ment. In  Hungary  it  is  different ;  but  the  Vienna  people 
are  still  intensely  loyal  to  the  throne. 

That  could  also  be  plainly  seen  at  the  funeral  ceremo- 
nies of  the  late  Francis  Ferdinand,  in  June,  1914.  For 
despite  the  fact  that  he  had  not  been  at  all  popular  with 
the  Austrians  of  Teutonic  stock,  the  Viennese  honoured 
in  him  the  murdered  heir  to  the  throne.  The  archduke 
had  been  hated  by  them  in  life  not  alone  because  he  had 
taken  a  Czech  woman  for  wife  and  was  credited  with  a 
design  to  establish  "Trialism"  (in  place  of  a  dual  a  triad 
monarchy,  with  the  Slav  element  as  the  third  and  most 
important),  but  because  of  his  entire  personality  which 
to  them  was  intensely  unsjTnpathetic.  Indeed,  Francis 
Ferdinand  was  rather  rude  and  rough  in  his  instincts 


180    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

and  demeanour.  He  had  none  of  that  distinctively  Aus- 
trian easy  good-nature.  He  was  a  martinet  with  the 
army,  exacting  and  often  brutal  with  his  intimates  and 
his  servants.  All  sorts  of  stories  are  current  explaining 
the  almost  hostility  felt  for  him  by  the  masses.  But  he 
seems  to  have  been  a  strong,  a  rugged  character,  one  of 
the  kind  that  poor  Austria-Hungary  needed  to  pull  her 
out  of  her  slough  of  despond.  The  young  man  now  in  his 
place  is  of  a  different  fibre.  His  face  betrays  weakness. 
But  it  also  beams  with  the  bright  smile  of  the  Austrian. 


CHAPTER  XII 

AUSTEIA-HUNGARY   DURING   THE   WAR 

General  belief  abroad  that  the  Dual  Monarchy  could  not  withstand  the 
shock — Shared  by  many  within  her  own  borders — Grounds  for  this 
belief — The  contrary  took  place — War  acted  like  a  cement  knitting 
the  loose  parts  into  a  firm  whole — The  Entente  Powers  themselves  to 
blame  for  that — Moods  and  expectations  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
giant  struggle — Austrians  relieved  from  the  load  of  self-distrust 
and  doubt — Street  scenes — Stump  speakers — With  hurrahs  and 
smiles  into  Armageddon — Disillusionment — The  first  trains  of 
wounded — ■  Prisoners  of  war  received  with  silent  compassion — How 
the  gi-ip  of  hard  times  set  in — Only  from  early  in  1915  the  serious- 
ness of  the  situation  realised — The  awful  crop  of  the  Carpathian 
Campaign — Fall  of  Przemysl— "Well,  that  is  the  way  with  us  here" 
— Slow  plans  for  providing  for  a  long  war — Woman  to  the  fore — 
How  she  replaces  the  men  in  the  trenches — Amusing  features  of 
this — Female  butchers,  di'ivers,  blacksmiths,  bricklayers,  street 
paviors — The  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  awakened — Gaieties  notwith- 
standing— Social  problems  cropping  up — Tremendous  increase  in 
youthful  criminality — Raising  the  wage  standard. 

One  of  the  miracles  wrought  by  this  war  is  surely  the 
reawakening  of  Austria-Hungary.  Abroad  scarcely  any 
one  had  deemed  it  possible  for  the  ancient  monarchy,  that 
had  been  crumbling  to  pieces  before  the  very  eyes  of 
careful  observers,  to  weather  the  storm  and  withstand 
the  awful  forces  of  assault  let  loose  from  every  quarter. 
Those  who  knew  the  country  best  held  that  opinion  most 
firmly.  Even  within  her  own  borders  if  not  the  majority 
of  the  people  then  certainly  a  very  large  portion  of  it 

181 


182    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

thonglit  the  hour  of  poHtical  doom  had  struck  for  Aus- 
tria-Hungary. Centrifugal  agencies  had  been  visibly  at 
work  undermining  foundations,  and  hardly  anything  op- 
posing such  tendencies  could  be  perceived.  In  fact,  it 
had  been  predicted,  time  and  time  again,  in  Austria's  own 
parliament,  that  the  next  great  war  would  sweep  the  mon- 
archy out  of  existence.  True,  in  Hungary  such  a  state 
of  mind  did  not  prevail  to  the  same  degree.  Patriotism, 
faith  in  the  future  of  the  country  as  a  permanent  political 
entity,  are  vital  there,  even  if  it  must  be  conceded  that 
the  oppressed  minorities  suffering  under  the  Magyarising 
yoke  of  the  dominant  race,  had  serious  grievances  and 
that  their  loyalty  at  best  proceeded  from  the  head  and 
not  from  the  heart.  But  as  to  Austria  there  could  be  no 
question  at  all.  It  was  honeycombed  with  discontent  and 
apparently  fast  disintegrating.  Nor  were  grounds  for 
such  discontent  lacking,  as  is  pointed  out  elsewhere  in  de- 
tail. 

Briefly,  besides  a  number  of  political  reasons,  besides 
the  insidious  race  troubles,  there  were  potent  social  and 
economic  motives  to  be  pleaded  for  the  disgruntled  ele- 
ments. And  the  reflex  of  all  this  dissatisfaction  could 
be  plainly  discerned,  year  after  year,  in  the  steadily 
growing  emigration.  Indeed,  so  threatening  a  feature 
of  the  economic  life  of  both  Austria  and  Hungary  had 
this  emigration  become  shortly  before  the  outbreak  of  the 
war  that  both  governments  resorted  to  the  most  drastic 
measures  to  check  it.  During  the  fiscal  year  1913,  de- 
spite all  the  severe  and  very  comprehensive  steps  (includ- 
ing, as  these  did,  the  criminal  prosecution  of  several  hun- 
dreds of  emigration  agents ;  the  absolute  prohibition  for 
all  male  persons  between  17  and  35  to  leave  the  country 
except  by  special  authorisation  and  with  the  permission 
of  the  military  and  civic  officials ;  the  imposition  of  heavy 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY  DURING  THE  WAR    183 

fines  and  jail  sentences  for  all  those  wlio  had  facilitated 
the  escape  of  persons  of  military  age  across  the  frontiers, 
etc.),  the  tide  of  emigration  had  still  rushed  on  at  the 
rate  of  over  400,000  for  the  entire  monarchy,  beside  an- 
other 600,000,  in  round  figures,  that  as  ' '  season  wander- 
ers" had  left  the  more  backward  provinces— especially 
Galicia  and  Croatia— to  earn  during  the  spring  and  sum- 
mer, mostly  in  Germany,  the  bread  for  the  support  of 
themselves  and  their  families  which  at  home  they  were 
unable  to  find. 

Well,  the  war  came,  and  in  the  face  of  all  this  and  of 
much  more  here  left  unmentioned,  the  ancient  empire  not 
only  stood  the  awful  test  but  actually  underwent  a  reju- 
venating process  during  it.  All  those  fragments  that 
before  the  war  had  hung  but  loosely  together,  were  fused 
into  a  firm  whole,  if  but  for  a  time.  The  fires  of  a  com- 
mon danger  welded  them  together;  the  terrific  blows 
dealt  by  fate  hastened  but  the  process  of  consolidation. 

To  any  one  who,  like  myself,  was  merely  an  interested 
onlooker,  the  thing  seemed  nothing  short  of  a  miracle. 
It  was  certainly  a  very  striking  illustration  of  a  truth— 
duly  appreciated  by  but  few — that  such  a  historic  struc- 
ture, no  matter  how  heterogeneous  and  how  casual  the 
mutual  adhesion  seemed  to  be,  is  not  easily  demolished. 
The  mere  force  of  inertia  militates  against  destruction. 
There  are  unseen  ties  holding  the  parts  together  below 
the  surface.  There  are  hundreds  of  special  reasons,  many 
of  them  no  doubt  quite  trivial  in  themselves,  making  for 
the  continuance  of  the  whole,  despite  all  those  other  hun- 
dreds of  conflicting  interests  and  warring  feelings  that 
in  times  of  security  had  it  all  their  own  way.  Above  all, 
if  I  have  succeeded  in  reading  aright  the  psyche  of  the 
average  Austrian,  there  was  one  determining  factor  mak- 
ing for  the  preservation  of  this  weird  and  polyglot  com- 


184    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

pound,  and  that  is  the  dread  of  the  unknown.  In  talking 
over  things  in  their  naive  way,  the  soldiers  in  the 
trenches,  the  peasants  by  their  homely  firesides,  the  ur- 
ban residents  during  their  toil,  all  seem  to  have  argued 
about  this  way:  Well,  what  is  to  become  of  us  if  our 
enemies  prevail?  Should  we  be  better  off  under  some 
new  rule?  Would  there  be  lighter  taxation?  Would 
life  be  easier  for  us  ?  And,  on  the  whole,  the  conclusion 
they  reached  seems  to  have  been  in  the  negative.  In 
other  words,  they  decided  that  it  would  not  be  wise,  in 
order  to  escape  the  evils  they  knew  of,  to  flee  to  new 
ones. 

At  any  rate,  whether  I  understood  these  simple-souled 
people  correctly  or  not,  this  much  admits  of  no  doubt: 
That  the  people  of  Austria  in  overwhelming  numbers 
made  up  their  minds  to  stick  by  what  they  got;  to  stand 
by  their  old  emperor  in  his  days  of  trouble.  And  if  I 
may  express  an  opinion  here  it  appears  to  me  that  the 
Entente  Powers  themselves  were  very  largely  to  blame 
for  this  decision.  If  the  Entente  Powers  had  been  wise 
enough  to  hold  a  conclave,  early  in  the  war,  and  then  to 
issue,  as  the  result  of  their  deliberations,  a  statement 
frank  and  comprehensible  and  honest,  by  which  their  re- 
sponsible statesmen  had  bound  themselves  to  a  pro- 
gramme of  reform,  pledging  the  good  faith  of  the  west- 
em  nations  and  of  Russia  to  inviolability  of  territory,  au- 
tonomy, full  internal  rights  and  economic  prosperity, 
Austria-Hungary  in  all  likelihood  would  have  been  theirs. 
Such  a  programme  would  have  tallied  with  the  proclaimed 
Entente  aims  of  the  war.  It  would  have  appealed  very 
strongly  to  the  various  races  within  the  empire  weary 
of  ceaseless  and  bootless  strife.  It  would  have  been  a 
reasonable  compromise.  But  instead  of  that  the  Entente 
statesmen  merely  intrigued  and  made  hollow  protesta- 


AUSTEIA-HUNGARY  DURING  THE  WAR    185 

tions,  made  promises  which,  even  if  i\iej  had  been  carried 
out,  would  not  have  solved  the  difficult  problems  under 
the  weight  of  which  Austria-Hungary  had  been  stagger- 
ing for  so  many  years.  And  when  that  did  not  have  the 
desired  effect,  declarations  believed  to  be  authentic  be- 
gan to  appear  in  the  enemy  as  well  as  neutral  press 
wherein  the  Entente  Powers  threatened  the  complete 
political  destruction  of  the  old  empire,  with  annexation 
of  territories  to  neighbours  more  or  less  greedy  and  cor- 
respondingly hated,  such  as  Serbia,  Rumania,  Italy  and 
Russia,  leaving  but  an  impotent  and  dismembered  rem- 
nant. It  is  true,  this  picture  of  their  future  did  in  a  meas- 
ure appeal  to  certain  limited  sections  of  Austria  (to  Bo- 
hemia, at  least  to  the  Czech  part  of  it,  particularly),  but 
it  did  not  do  so  to  any  part  of  Hungary,  not  even  to  the 
Rumanian  districts  of  it.  On  the  contrary,  it  spurred 
them  on  to  more  stubborn  resistance.  It  made  Hungary, 
for  the  time  being,  one  political  unit.  And  those  proposi- 
tions and  fanciful  dreams  emanated  from  so  many  (often 
wholly  apocryphal)  sources  and  were  often  framed  in 
such  offensive  language  and  conceived  in  such  total  mis- 
apprehension of  the  soul  of  Austria-Hungary  that  they 
could  not  fail  to  have  just  the  opposite  effect  desired. 

Interesting  the  opening  months  of  the  bloody  drama 
this  war  has  turned  out  to  be  certainly  were.  I  had  spent 
nearly  two  years  in  Austria  when  the  bullets  of  Cabrino- 
vic  and  his  associates  put  an  end  to  the  lives  of  Archduke 
Francis  Ferdinand,  the  heir  to  the  throne,  and  of  his  con- 
sort, the  Duchess  Sophie.  Up  to  that  hour  I  had 
strangely  missed  any  visible  token  of  patriotism,  even  in 
Vienna.  Scarcely  ever,  for  example,  did  one  see  the  Aus- 
trian flag  with  its  Black-and-Yellow  in  the  streets  or  on 
top  of  buildings ;  the  Red-White-Green  of  Hungary  still 
more  seldom.    But  from  that  hour  on  all  changed.    It 


186    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

was  as  tliougii  some  powerful  restorative  had  been  ad- 
ministered to  the  whole  people.  They  not  only  instantly 
became  fervently  patriotic;  no,  they  turned  chauvinists 
and  jingoes.  That  whole  month  from  the  end  of  June 
to  the  end  of  July,  1914,  was  intensely  hot  and  dry 
throughout  the  monarchy,  as  though  to  keep  step  with 
the  aroused  temper  of  the  nation.  Day  after  day  the  sun 
shone  glaringly  from  a  deep-blue  firmament,  and  day  by 
day  I  watched  with  keen  attention  the  rising  tide  of  war 
fever.  In  those  days  I  saw  and  heard  what  I  had  not 
so  far  observed  among  this  people  of  indolent,  easy  good 
nature.  Downtown  in  the  heart  of  Vienna,  and  away 
out  in  the  quiet  slumberous  suburbs,  men  would  sud- 
denly be  seized  by  a  veritable  frenzy.  They  would  climb 
on  top  of  a  soap  box,  mount  an  auto  or  a  cart  standing 
by  the  curbstone,  or  be  hoisted  to  the  pedestal  of  one  of 
the  many  monuments,  and  then  harangue  the  quickly 
gathering  crowd.  Where  did  they  all  come  from  in  a 
moment  ?  Invariably  an  Austrian  flag  v/ould  be  unfurled 
to  the  breeze,  a  war  hymn  would  be  intoned  and  the  stir- 
ring words  of  it  would  kindle  eyes  and  make  pulses  throb. 
And  then  your  stump  speaker  would  begin.  And  how 
he  did  hold  forth !  The  gist  of  his  impassioned  tale  would 
always  run  like  this:  That  the  old  empire  had  been 
asleep  for  half  a  century,  shamefully  asleep,  while  down 
below  to  the  southeast  a  cunning,  boastful,  malevolent 
dwarf  had  mocked  them  all,  spat  at  them,  challenged  them 
a  hundredfold ;  how  it  was  time  now  to  awake  from  this 
inglorious  sleep,  to  be  up  and  doing;  how  this  wicked 
dwarf,  the  Serb,  had  in  his  presumption  at  last  murder- 
ously slain  the  man  on  whom  Austria  had  built  her  hopes 
of  a  brighter  future,  of  prouder  days;  and  how  to  the 
north  another  neighbour,  one  half  bear,  half  man,  but 
wholly  evil,  had  encouraged  and  egged  on  this  arrogant 


AUSTEIA-IIUNGARY  DURING  THE  WAR    187 

pygmy  to  the  last  and  final  outrage;  but  how  they,  the 
men  of  Austria,  must  now  avenge  the  murder  and  see  to 
it  that  nothing  like  that  should  ever  become  possible 
again.  And  so  fortli  and  so  on  in  the  same  strain.  And 
I  must  confess  that  these  orators  sprung  from  the  loins 
of  the  people  did  talk  well.  Their  eloquence  had  some- 
thing elemental  in  it.  They  simply  sw^ept  their  audi- 
ences off  their  feet.  And  the  effect  was  lasting.  From 
day  to  day  I  noticed  plainly  how  the  hysteria  spread. 
These  preachers  of  ''war  as  a  remedy"  invaded  even  the 
palaces  of  the  old  emperor  and  of  the  archdukes,  of  the 
Minister  of  War,  Fieldmarshal  Krobatin,  and  the  dingy 
old  pile  of  the  Foreign  Office  on  the  Ballplatz,  close  to  the 
Hofburg,  and  everywhere  it  was  the  same  spectacle. 
Everywhere  the  easygoing  Viennese  were  wrought  up  to 
the  pitch  of  martial  furor.  The  old  songs  of  Austria's 
former  glory,  the  lay  of  conquering  Prince  Eugene,  the 
winsome  tune  of  Haydn's  ''Gott  erhalte,"  burst  forth 
and  were  heard  everywhere,  played  everywhere  in  the 
public  amusement  places  and  parks;  the  bands  intoned 
them  in  the  beer  and  wine  gardens;  and  as  though  an 
electric  spark  had  run  riot,  everybody  rose,  old  and 
young,  men  of  all  ranks,  and  while  they  sang  tears  of 
emotion  glistened  in  their  eyes.  Never  before  had  I  seen 
a  people  in  such  a  delirium  of  wrath. 

Was  there  a  movement  on  foot  to  bring  all  this  about? 
Or  was  it  really  the  spontaneous  outburst  of  a  people 
still  treasuring  a  great  past,  still  proud  of  the  warlike 
achievements  of  their  forbears?  I  must  own  I  was  un- 
able to  determine  that  point.  At  times  it  certainly  did 
look  to  me  as  though  it  were  a  master  hand  thus  playing 
cleverly  on  the  heartstrings  of  an  unconscious  throng. 
There  were  circumstances  that  made  such  a  supposition 
plausible.     All  the  more  as  one  followed  the  skilfully 


188    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

launched  catch  phrases  in  that  portion  of  the  press,  both 
in  Vienna  and  Budapest,  inspired  commonly  by  the  For- 
eign Office.  Certainly  Count  Berchtold,  at  that  time 
guiding  the  destinies  of  the  monarchy  as  a  whole,  and 
Count  Tisza,  the  Hungarian  premier,  were  evidently  in 
favour  of  adopting  the  most  ruthless  measures  against 
little  Serbia,  the  "dwarf"  aforesaid  who  had  caused 
them  so  many  sleepless  nights. 

But  be  that  as  it  may,  when  the  night  finally  came,  the 
night  of  July  24th,  and  the  wire  flashed  the  news  from 
Belgrade  that  Serbia  had  rejected  the  Austro-Hungarian 
ultimatum,  the  whole  to^vn,  the  whole  two  millions  of 
Vienna,  were  strung  up  for  war.  I  went  down  to  the  cen- 
tre, where  the  little  newsboys  were  distributing  "extras" 
— tiny  leaflets  containing  the  skeleton  news  in  block,  bold- 
faced type — and  there  could  be  no  doubt  in  anybody's 
mind  that  it  meant  War, — War  with  a  big  W.  The  whole 
town  was  frantic  with  joy.  Total  strangers  embraced 
each  other.  They  wept  for  joy.  The  nightmare  of  hu- 
miliation, of  disdain  gulped  down  like  a  nauseous  drug 
for  ages,  was  off  their  breasts.  They  felt  like  freemen, 
like  heroes  fit  for  battle.  It  was  the  same  in  Budapest, 
as  I  subsequently  read  in  the  papers;  it  was  similar  in 
the  provincial  capitals.  If  ever  a  nation  w^ent  into  war 
as  to  a  feast,  as  to  a  cleansing,  strengthening  bath,  Aus- 
tria-Hungary surely  did  on  that  sultry,  nerve-racking 
night  of  July  24th,  1914. 

Neither  was  it  a  flash  in  the  pan  merely.  When  the 
news  came  that  Russia  had  made  Serbia's  cause  her  own, 
and  that  war  was  on  with  the  big  northern  colossus,  it 
found  the  people  still  in  the  same  mood  of  martial  joy- 
ousness,  if  one  may  use  such  an  expression.  The  old 
emperor  had  read  his  many-tongued  "peoples"  aright. 
His  proclamations,  crisp  and  ringing,  set  them  all  ablaze 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY  DURING  THE  WAR    189 

anew.  They  were  firmly  convinced  of  the  righteousness 
of  their  cause.  They  were  sure  of  undivided  support  of 
their  great  ally,  Germany.  They  reckoned,  every  one  of 
them  almost,  with  a  short  victorious  war.  People  would 
demonstrate  to  you  that  it  must  be  so.  Even  the  women 
were  caught  in  that  net  of  specious  pleading.  In  the 
stores  the  owner  would  address  you ;  ' '  Not  longer  than 
three  months  at  the  utmost,  don't  you  think  sol  Why, 
there  isn't  enough  money  in  the  whole  world  to  carry  on 
war  nowadays  for  a  longer  period ;  war  is  so  expensive, 
you  know.  Three  months — then  peace  with  glory."  And 
the  poor  woman  whom  I  noted  a  year  later  wearing 
mourning  for  her  eldest  who  had  been  killed  in  Russia, 
would  give  me  my  change  with  hands  trembling  with  ex- 
citement. 

Then  came  the  days  when  endless  trains  rolled  out  of 
Vienna  toward  the  northern  front.  Inside  were  jammed 
young  soldiers  between  21  and  28 ;  dapper  officers,  their 
eyes  shining  with  valour,  all  wearing  oak  leaves  or  tiny 
pine  twigs  in  their  new  caps  of  field-grey,  shouting,  sing- 
ing in  chorus,  their  weeping  sweethearts,  wives  or  moth- 
ers catching  a  last  glance  of  them.  On  the  doors  of  tlieir 
cars,  all  over  their  cars,  in  fact,  they  had  chalked  rhymed 
doggerel  of  their  own  composition,  distichs  or  couplets 
poking  good-natured  fun  at  the  foe  they  were  to  meet 
so  soon  and  whom  they  undervalued,  oh !  so  sadly.  Hu- 
mour, reckless  humour  in  these  verses.  Stanzas  there 
were  concluding  with  the  remark:  ^'Good-bye,  till  we 
meet  again  at  Moscow."  And  how  many  of  them  later 
on  actually  did  meet  the  Russians  in  Moscow!  Only  it 
was  a  different  kind  of  meeting  from  the  one  fancied. 
Well,  they  knew  none  of  these  things  at  that  time.  They 
were  buoyant,  cocksure  of  quick  victory. 

A  little  later  the  first  transports  of  war  prisoners  and 


190    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

of  their  own  wounded — almost  simultaneously — ^began  to 
arrive.  I  recall  the  immense  multitude  of  anxious  rela- 
tives and  friends  (for  one  of  the  regiments  garrisoned  in 
Vienna,  the  famous  Deutschmeister,  had  contributed  a 
goodly  share  of  these  victims  of  the  war)  one  breathless 
August  night  waiting,  packed  six  deep,  near  the  huge 
complex  of  buildings  making  up  the  General  Hospital  in 
Alsen  St.,  Vienna.  Now  the  temper  of  the  people  had  al- 
ready begun  to  change.  War  seemed  no  longer  a  picnic. 
They  waited  dumbly,  with  beating  hearts.  At  last  the 
long,  long  procession  of  Red  Cross  autos,  rumbling  hol- 
lowly over  the  rough  pavement,  began  to  arrive — slowly, 
cautiously.  The  wide  gates  of  the  place  opened  from  the 
inside.  They  are  still  opening  to-day  for  the  same  pur- 
pose. One  by  one  the  drab  vehicles,  big  cross  painted  on 
the  side,  vanished  into  the  inner  court.  But  there  were 
too  many  of  these  autos.  There  was  a  jam.  Several  of 
them  turned  off  inside.  They  contained  poor  fellows  who 
had  died  in  transit.  Other  autos  had  their  cargoes  un- 
loaded, and  on  stretchers  these  wounded  men  were  borne 
through  the  hallway.  One  of  these  was  groaning  very 
low.  A  woman  darted  forward  from  the  front  row  and 
put  a  flask  of  wine  to  the  cracked  lips  of  the  sufferer. 
''He  looks  just  like  my  own  boy!"  she  murmured,  as  she 
crept  back  into  her  place.  Many  of  this  transport  came 
from  the  Serbian  front.  They  were  badly  hacked  or  shot 
to  pieces  by  the  old-fashioned  Turkish  handjars  or  an- 
tiquated bell-mouthed  blunderbuses  the  Serbian  govern- 
ment had  equipped  the  bands  of  franctirenrs  with  out  of 
its  arsenal  at  Kraguyevatz.  ''These  wounds  will  never 
heal,"  said  one  of  the  receiving  internes  of  the  hospital. 
In  those  early  days  of  the  war  the  tremendous  task  of 
taking  proper  care  of  the  hosts  of  sick  and  wounded  was 
not  as  yet  handled  well.     It  required  a  number  of  months 


AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY  DURING  THE  WAR    191 

to  organise  and  systematise  it  properly,  and  even  then 
many  novel  features  had  to  be  created  in  order  to  fit 
newly  arising  conditions.  At  the  time  I  speak  of  it  hap- 
pened very  frequently  that  of  a  trainload  of  men  brought 
in  from  the  front  no  less  than  twenty-five  per  cent,  or 
more  perished  on  the  journey,  partly  through  lack  of 
adequate  care,  partly  because  they  had  not  been  in  a  fit 
condition  for  a  long  transport.  But  all  these  things  grew 
rapidly  better. 

A  few  days  later  I  witnessed  the  arrival  in  Vienna  of 
the  first  large  number  of  war  prisoners.  They  came  in 
two  big  sections,  one  from  the  Russian,  the  other  from 
the  Serbian  front,  about  13,000  in  all  on  that  day.  It  was 
very  interesting  to  watch  the  process.  Speaking  gener- 
ally, the  Russians  were  a  little  stunned  by  all  the  new  and 
unlooked-for  things  they  saw,  but  otherwise  quite  cheer- 
ful, almost  boyishly  happy,  some  of  them.  With  big, 
trustful,  childlike  eyes  they  regarded  the  crowds  lining 
the  streets  near  the  Northern  Station  where  they  had 
debarked.  Their  destination  was  a  hastily  constructed 
camp  in  the  vicinity  of  Wels,  Upper  Austria.  Later  on 
this  camp  was  one  of  those  I  visited.  Among  the  Rus- 
sians the  infantry  men  formed  the  great  bulk.  The  re- 
mainder were  largely  Cossacks,  and  these  had  a  totally 
different  aspect  from  that  of  the  others — they  wore  a 
forbidding,  distrustful,  stern  mien.  The  Serbians,  of 
whom  about  150  were  women  and  young  boys  from  ten 
upwards — and  these  had  been  made  prisoners  while  en- 
gaged in  guerilla  warfare  against  the  invaders — looked 
all  of  them  like  the  Cossacks.  Sullen,  vindicative,  fa- 
natical, young  and  old  alike  avoided  observation  as  much 
as  they  could.  There  were  many  old  men  in  their  serried 
ranks,  men  with  long,  straggling  wdiiskers  of  grey  and 


192    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

with  eyes  that  made  the  impression  of  extinct  volcanoes 
with  now  and  then  a  last  lurid  flare  in  them. 

"What  interested  me  more  than  all  else  was  the  recep- 
tion given  by  the  populace  to  this  motley  host  of  their 
vanquished  foes.  For  this  reception  was  quite  other- 
wise from  what  I  had  expected.  It  was  compassionate, 
almost  sympathetic.  No  reviling  word  fell.  Men  and 
women  would  hush  heedless  children  when  those  let  drop 
remarks  that  might  be  offensive  to  the  strangers.  Many 
of  the  prisoners  were  weary,  footsore,  half  starved.  One 
Serbian  cast  an  avid  glance  at  a  loaf  of  bread  in  a  wo- 
man's arms,  and  she  instantly  sprang  towards  him  and 
pressed  him  to  take  it,  saying,  in  her  rough  Viennese 
dialect:  ''Arms  Hascherl,  gel  d'hist  hungrigf"  (Poor 
fellow,  you're  hungry,  I  suppose).  And  the  crowd 
thought  it  but  right  for  her  to  perform  the  little  Samari- 
tan act,  although  one  elderly  man  mumbled;  *'Well,  I 
bet  ours  fare  no  better." 

It  took  a  long,  long  time  to  make  this  happy-go-lucky 
people  of  Austria  (and  still  more  that  of  Hungary) 
understand  the  seriousness  of  the  whole  situation  created 
by  the  war.  For  months  and  months  they  continued  to! 
live  about  in  their  accustomed  way.  The  news  in  the 
papers  might  try  to  bring  the  grim  truth  home  to  them. 
But  so  long  as  death  and  danger  and  want  did  not  touch 
them  personally,  all  that  news  seemed  a  long  way  off  and 
to  be  no  concern  of  theirs.  In  Vienna  and  Budapest  very 
especially  the  gay  and  carefree  life  had  apparently  not 
changed.  Not  alone  the  luxurious  coffee  houses  along 
the  main  thoroughfares  were  lit  up  nights  as  brilliantly 
as  ever,  and  the  laughter  one  heard  in  passing  was  as 
boisterous,  but  every  other  place  of  recreation  was  also 
throngfed.  The  war  was  still  discussed  with  abandon. 
Censorship  had  only  just  beg-un  to  be  felt.     The  end — an 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY  DURING  THE  WAR    193 

end  crowned  with  laurels,  of  course — seemed  yet  nigh. 
The  joys  of  the  table  were  still  freely  indulged  in,  and 
no  one  had  even  the  remotest  suspicion  that  Austria  and 
Hungary,  countries  wallowing  from  times  immemorial 
in  the  lap  of  food  plenitude,  would  before  long  feel  the 
pinch  of  hunger. 

It  was  not  till  early  in  1915,  when  the  war  had  already 
gone  on  for  seven  or  eight  months,  that,  stroke  upon 
stroke,  a  realisation  of  ''what  they  were  up  against" 
began  dimly  to  be  perceived.  Those  were  the  awful  days 
of  the  Carpathian  campaign,  when  Austrians  and  Hun- 
garians (and  the  Germans  of  General  von  Linsingen,  that 
had  come  to  their  assistance)  froze  to  death  by  the  thou- 
sands in  the  passes  and  skirting  woods  of  that  range  of 
mountains,  often  holding  positions  five  thousand  feet 
high,  with  the  snow  house-deep  and  the  mercury  below 
the  zero  point.  Those  were  the  days  when  the  "Russian 
peril"  for  the  first  time  came  to  be  adjudged  at  its  true 
perspective,  when  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  Nicholaye- 
vitch  was  thundering  with  his  legions  along  the  whole 
line  that  leads  from  the  Galician  passes  down  to  Moravia 
and  Vienna  at  one  end  and  to  the  Hungarian  plain  and 
Budapest  on  the  other,  and  when  that  gaunt  commander 
was  sacrificing  within  one  single  week  80,000  of  his  men 
in  the  reckless  attempt  to  break  the  thin  phalanx  of  its 
defenders.  These  were  also  the  days  when  the  spectre 
of  want  first  began  to  stalls  through  the  land ;  when  the 
"bread-card"  was  issued;  when  the  Austrian  govern- 
ment (just  as  improvident  as  the  people  it  rules  over) 
suddenly  discovered  that  the  visible  supply  of  foodstuffs 
had  shrunk  to  a  minimum,  and  that  nothing  more  could 
be  had  for  love  or  money  till  the  next  harvest.  And 
finally,  these  were  the  days  when  Przemysl  fell. 

Nothing  characterises   the  shiftlessness   and  lack  of 


194    AUSTEIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

provision  of  the  Austrian  government  more  strikingly 
than  the  circumstances  attendant  on  the  surrender  of 
that  virgin  stronghold.  The  enormous  strategic  impor- 
tance of  Przemysl  (pr.  Pshemyshl)  had  all  along  been 
pointed  out  in  the  press  of  the  monarchy,  and  so  had  the 
'impossibility"  of  taking  it.  The  heroic  defence,  the 
enormous  slaughter  among  the  Russian  assailants  under 
the  Bulgarian  Dimitrieff,  80,000  of  his  army  being  lost 
during  the  first  siege,  these  things  had  all  been  dwelt  on 
"with  confident  pride.  And  then  like  a  thunderbolt  from 
the  blue  came  one  evening  the  news  of  the  fall  of  this 
impregnable  fortress.  Nobody  was  prepared  for  it.  At 
the  little  news  store  where  I  bought  my  evening  papers, 
despair  reigned.  I  went  home  and  told  my  Austrian 
landlady.  Her  son,  a  young  lieutenant,  staying  with  her 
on  his  w^ay  to  recovery  from  incipient  consumption 
brought  on  by  the  hardships  of  the  Russian  campaign, 
was  at  first  stunned.  Then  he  broke  out,  with  a  sort  of 
quiet  fatalism:  ''Well,  that  is  the  way  with  us  here." 
He  meant  the  Austrian  lack  of  efficiency  and  the  inability 
to  attend  to  things  w^ith  thoroughness.  For  Przemysl 
had  been  compelled  to  surrender  because  of  lack  of  pro- 
visions, forced  by  hunger,  and  more  than  100,000  men 
went  into  Russian  captivity.  Some  6,000  guns  w^ere  lost. 
The  Russians  now  held  72  per  cent,  of  Galicia.  Next  day 
and  the  days  following  the  Austro-Hungarian  war  min- 
ister published  in  the  papers  many  details  of  the  disaster, 
making  an  attempt  to  exculpate  himself ;  trying  to  make 
it  appear  that  the  event  had  been  inevitable.  But  I  had 
to  remember  the  exclamation  of  the  young  lieutenant: 
"Well,  that  is  the  way  with  us  here."  It  explained 
everything. 

Throughout  this  fearful  winter  of  1914-15,  very  severe 
and  dreary,  with  coal  and  other  fuel  scarce  and  high  in 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY  DURING  THE  WAR    195 

price,  and  with  an  infant  mortality  in  Vienna  and  other 
large  cities  unparalleled  for  centuries, — throughout  this 
winter,  I  say,  the  terrible  crop  of  the  Carpathian  cam- 
paign referred  to  had  been  ripening.  That  is,  scores  of 
thousands  of  men  with  frozen  limbs  had  been  brought  in 
to  Vienna  in  trainload  after  trainload.  The  whole  city 
was  one  vast  sickhouse.  Everything  had  been  turned 
into  an  infirmary.  Beside  the  regular  hospitals  and  the 
so-called  *' reserve"  hospitals  established  by  the  war  de- 
partment, of  which  latter  at  one  time  there  were  fifty-odd, 
Red  Cross  funds  had  been  used  to  create  hospitals,  dis- 
pensaries, sanatoriums.  The  Order  of  St.  John,  a 
knightly  organisation  of  which  an  archduke  was  the 
''chief  hospitaller,"  had  also  raised  funds  among  the 
wealthy  and  maintained  by  now  a  number  of  houses  for 
the  reception  of  suffering  officers.  All  the  school  build- 
ings, wholly  or  in  part,  were  made  over  into  hospitals. 
Even  the  huge  University  building  was  given  over  in  two 
of  its  wings  to  the  care  of  wounded  soldiers.  Nay,  the 
very  Parliament  Building,  a  structure  of  rare  architec- 
tural beauty  in  the  classical  taste,  became  a  hospital. 
Some  75,000  wounded  or  sick  soldiers  were  thus  housed 
at  one  time  in  Vienna  alone. 

And  then  at  last,  slowly,  unwillingly  almost,  early 
spring  arrived.  The  sun  once  more  began  to  struggle 
out  from  behind  those  leaden  cloud  banks,  and  sprigs  of 
green  peeped  out  shyly.  And  as  the  days  grew  longer 
and  warmer,  for  the  first  time  one  could  measure  the 
dread  horror  of  it  all.  For  now  these  houses  to  w^hich, 
purposely  always  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  these 
myriads  of  maimed  fighters  had  been  taken  throughout 
the  weary  months  of  winter,  commenced  to  disgorge,  so  as 
to  let  the  sun  and  the  gentle  spring  air  do  what  surgeons 
and  drugs  had  not  been  able  to  do.     The  great  Ring- 


196    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

strasse  of  Vienna,  for  a  distance  of  three  miles  running 
in  a  semi-circle  around  the  inner  city,  saw  multitude  upon 
multitude  of  these  victims  of  a  relentless  war.  There 
they  came,  hobbling  on  crutches,  the  head  tied  up  into  a 
formless  mass  under  a  turban  of  gauze  and  linen  band- 
ages, arms  in  sling,  feet  a  bulky  package,  pale,  weak,  yet 
trembling  with  joy  at  breathing  once  again  in  the  open. 
And  there  they  sat  by  the  thousand  on  the  benches  placed 
under  the  quadruple  row  of  tall  shade  trees,  and  looked 
up  with  grateful  eyes  at  all  the  petting  and  sympathy, 
all  the  handfuls  of  cigars  and  cigarettes  pressed  and 
urged  on  them.  These  were  some  of  the  victims  of  the 
Carpathian  campaign.  Many  more  thousands  lay  out 
there,  where  the  sun  now  licked  away  the  snow  from  their 
mouldering  bodies  in  the  narrow  defiles  and  dense  brush 
about  the  mountain  passes.  And  the  Vienna  people  knew 
it:  these  men  here  on  the  benches  were  they  who  had 
stood  between  them  and  perdition,  between  them  and 
chaos.  Often  it  was  touching  to  observe  how  some  dainty 
miss  would  stop  and  put  forth  her  little  hand  to  shake 
the  hairy  paw  of  one  of  these  tough  warriors,  and  chat 
and  make  much  of  him.  But  some  of  the  sights  were  not 
for  such  as  she.  I  recall  one  case  particularly.  It  was 
that  of  two  men,  simple  private  soldiers,  labourers  prob- 
ably in  their  Styrian  village  home,  comrades  both  who 
had  served  in  the  same  company  of  the  same  regiment. 
And  the  same  fate,  too,  had  befallen  them.  For  while 
on  sentry  duty  one  intensely  cold  night  they  had,  each  of 
them,  frozen  legs  and  hands.  Those  two  sturdy  men 
were  reduced  to  nothing  but  trunks — the  limbs  had  been 
amputated.  Now  they  were  taking  their  first  ''walk" 
outside  the  hospital,  on  artificial  limbs  furnished  at  gov- 
ernment expense.  They  were  able  to  use  them  haltingly 
as  yet,  but  practice  makes  perfect,  and  by  now  they  are 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY  DURING  THE  WAR    197 

probably  getting  along  tolerably  at  home.  The  Vienna 
people  are  very  kind-hearted,  very  compassionate,  and 
the  httle  scene  I  witnessed,  with  these  two  as  central 
figures,  demonstrated  that  anew.  For  when  the  two 
friends  had  reached  the  corner  of  Kiirntner  Strasse, 
which  is  to  Vienna  about  what  lower  Fifth  Ave.  is  to 
New  York,  two  ladies  spied  them  from  their  carriage, 
halted,  ran  towards  them  and  began  to  question.  Then 
each  tore  otf  the  cap  of  one  of  the  men  and  first  cast  a 
bank  bill  in  it,  next  stood  at  that  much  frequented  corner 
and  begged.  Within  five  minutes  both  caps  were  brimful 
of  money — mostly  paper,  with  some  silver  coins  mingled. 
It  was  a  treat  to  watch  the  two  crippled  soldiers  mean- 
while, their  broad  bucolic  faces  red  with  excitement  and 
wreathed  in  smiles.  Probably  they  had  never  seen  so 
much  money  in  their  lives  before  as  they  now  held  in 
their  caps.  A  stout  policeman  then  crossed  over,  and  in 
that  coaxing  voice  they  have  in  Vienna,  said  to  the  pair : 
''Now  you've  got  enough — I'll  call  a  cab  and  send  you 
home.  You're  capitalists  now  and  can  afford  to  ride." 
And  so  it  was  done,  and  the  two  rode  through  a  crowd 
of  smiling  humanity  back  to  their  hospital. 

"Ses,  they  were  decidedly  slow  in  Vienna  and  through- 
out Austria-Hungary  in  providing  for  a  long  war.  This 
was  true  in  every  respect.  So,  too,  in  finding  substitutes 
for  the  men  sent  to  the  trenches  to  fight.  Women  to  the 
fore !  That  at  last  became  the  watchword.  The  process 
was  a  very  gradual  one.  At  first  youths  had  been  pro- 
moted into  the  vacant  places  of  their  elders.  Wlien  the 
age  limit  both  in  Austria  and  Hungary  was  extended 
either  way,  so  that  the  men  were  called  in,  in  special  con- 
tingents, from  17  to  50,  there  was  no  help  for  it— the 
women  had  to  replace  the  men.  In  a  large  way  that  was 
done  on  the  street  railroad  lines  (which  in  Vienna  and 


198     AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

Budapest  are  run  by  the  municipality),  and  the  con- 
ductresses and  motor  women  were  put  into  uniforms 
similar  to  that  of  the  men,  and  there  was  considerable 
amusement  at  their  expense  for  a  month  or  so.  By  that 
time  the  public  were  used  to  the  sight.  But  as  men  of 
active  age  became  more  and  more  rare  in  the  hinterland, 
women  (and,  so  far  as  that  could  be  done,  boys  up  to  17) 
practically  began  to  monopolise  employments  of  every 
kind  that  had  formerly  been  regarded  as  distinctly  re- 
served for  men.  Even  the  butcher  trade,  that  of  the 
drivers,  blacksmiths,  horseshoers,  bricklayers,  street 
paviors,  etc.,  fell  largely  into  the  hands  of  women,  and  it 
was  found  that,  while  certain  drawbacks  had  to  be  ac- 
cepted as  unavoidable,  on  the  whole  they  fitted  such 
arduous  positions  much  better  than  did  the  lads  of  less 
than  seventeen.  In  the  country,  too,  they  did  the  best 
they  could,  although  to  safeguard  and  facilitate  the  heavy 
harvest  labours  large  numbers  of  soldiers  were  given 
leave  during  the  three  seasons  thus  far  passed  in  war. 
In  Hungary,  in  1916,  about  200,000  men  all  told  were  thus 
sent  home  to  help  their  overburdened  womankind  gather 
in  the  crops. 

No  doubt  many  humorous  situations  arose  out  of  this 
state  of  affairs.  In  the  cities  you  could  see  women  act- 
ing as  cab  drivers  who  possessed  that  feminine  fear  of 
the  horse  that  animates  some  of  the  sex.  And  such 
drivers  would  then  walk  demurely  at  the  head  of  the 
''fiery  steed,"  leading  him  by  the  bridle,  while  the  pas- 
senger inside,  who  was  paying  good  money  for  this  feeble 
imitation  of  a  drive,  would  storm  and  scold  in  vain.  The 
most  heroic  thing,  however,  I  saw  woman  do  in  Vienna 
was  her  turning  butcher.  Not  only  the  carving  and  saw- 
ing and  cutting-up  of  the  carcass,  be  it  remembered,  but 
the  killing,  the  slaughtering,  of  the  animal  as  well.    Yet 


AUSTRIA-HUNGARY  DURING  THE  WAR    199 

what  were  these  women  to  do?  With  the  enormous  prices 
paid  for  meat  (up  to  $3  the  pound),  the  pork  or  beef 
butcher  business  was  a  very  remunerative  one,  despite 
the  fancy  sums  paid  the  grower  in  the  country.  Hus- 
bands, sons  and  fathers  off  to  the  war,  it  was  either  shut 
up  shop  and  lose  all  the  trade  and  custom,  or  else  to 
buckle  to  and  do  the  job  as  well  as  she  knew  how.  Thus 
I  watched  with  some  amusement  the  plight  of  a  pork 
butcher's  wife  whom  my  wife  had  patronised  all  along. 
She  did  a  rushing  business,  and  my  wife  told  me  later 
that  the  good  woman  had  confided  to  her:  the  first  pig 
was  the  worst — every  other  after  that  came  easy.  It 
seems  that  she  and  her  daughter  (a  girl  of  18)  who  up  to 
that  awful  moment  had  sold  pork  certainly,  but  with  rings 
on  their  fingers  and  with  nice  white  hands,  were  at  a  loss 
how  to  cut  up  the  murdered  porker,  and  had  finally  done 
it  at  a  guess.  But,  she  said,  her  customers  were  never 
the  wiser.  They  had  not  noticed.  So  they  gained  con- 
fidence in  themselves,  and  soon  mastered  the  mysteries 
of  porkicide. 

But  it  was  by  no  means  only  in  these  lower  walks  of 
life  that  women  in  the  Dual  Monarchy  came,  saw  and  con- 
quered. No.  They  have  done  equally  as  well — perhaps 
better — in  nearly  all  the  learned  professions  and  in  re- 
sponsible positions.  They  have  been  admitted,  it  is  true, 
for  a  number  of  years  past,  in  the  universities  of  Aus- 
tria and  Hungary,  but  were  debarred  from  most  places 
for  which  study  had  fitted  them  theoretically.  Only  the 
practice  of  medicine  and  teaching  in  all  its  branches  were 
allowed  them,  while  they  were  shut  out  of  the  legal  pro- 
fession and  out  of  the  priesthood  as  well.  Since  the  war 
most  of  these  barriers  have  fallen.  They  may  not  as  yet 
be  appointed  to  the  bench,  but  they  can  practise  in  a 
number  of  courts,  may  become  administrators  of  estates, 


200    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

and  at  present  they  fill  the  greater  number  of  the  minor 
legal  office  positions.  At  the  public  schools  where  for- 
merly woman  teachers  were  frowned  upon,  except  in 
girls'  schools,  they  now  form  the  majority  of  the  force. 
Employment  in  banks,  wholesale  houses,  etc.,  has  largely 
passed  into  the  hands  of  women  as  well.  How  this  thing 
is  going  to  work  out  in  the  end  is  matter  of  conjecture,  of 
course.  At  the  front,  in  the  trenches,  this  has  been  dis- 
cussed thoroughly.  Nobody,  however,  can  tell  how  the 
readjustment  will  be  made  after  peace.  So  far  as  opin- 
ions expressed  in  the  press  goes  employers  are  on  the 
whole  satisfied  with  the  services  of  their  new  female 
clerks,  saleswomen,  bookkeepers,  etc.,  and  even  point  out 
a  preference  for  them.  Part  of  that,  however,  may  be 
owing  to  the  fact  that  they  have  to  pay  women  less  in 
wages,  salaries  or  commissions  than  they  did  to  the  men. 
One  thing  seems  certain,  the  war  has  roused  the  people 
of  Austria-Hungary.  They  are  more  virile,  more  ener- 
getic, more  enterprising  than  they  formerly  were.  Habits 
of  indolence  have  had  to  subside.  Self-indulgence,  per- 
haps the  besetting  sin  of  the  people  before  the  war,  has 
had  to  give  way  to  self-sacrifice,  to  altruism  in  all  its 
varied  phases.  Just  to  instance  one  point,  it  is  truly 
amazing  that  that  country,  economically  retarded  and 
poor  in  capital,  has  nevertheless  raised  the  enormous 
sums  through  its  own  unaided  strength  which  this  war 
has  swallowed.  Similarly,  the  voluntary  contributions 
to  all  sorts  of  charities  begotten  by  the  war  have  been 
not  only  very  large  but  spontaneous.  I  do  not  recall  a 
single  occasion  when  the  public  was  asked  in  vain  to  re- 
spond to  some  new  call  upon  its  generosity.  An  admi- 
rable feature,  for  example,  in  this  line  were  the  days 
when,  almost  wholly  managed  by  school  children,  boys 
and  girls,  of  the  ages  between  12  and  16,  voluntary  coUec- 


AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY  DURING  THE  WAR    201 

tions  were  taken  up  for  the  needs  of  the  Red  Cross- 
now  for  the  Blind  Fund,  now  for  the  Flower  Fund,  now 
for  the  hospitals,  again  for  some  other  commendable 
feature.  These  children  attended  to  these  duties 
promptly,  at  all  sorts  of  weather,  even  when  snow  was 
flying,  and  I  never  heard  of  any  shirking  or  of  any  dis- 
honesty. The  locked  boxes  were  delivered  untampered 
with  at  the  end  of  a  day  of  arduous  toil  (usually  Satur- 
days and  Sundays,  or  during  vacation  time),  and  in  that 
way  many  hundreds  of  thousands  passed  through  their 
hands  in  Vienna  alone. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  natural  craving  for  pleasure 
and  distraction  was  by  no  means  in  abeyance  throughout 
the  war.  The  theatres,  the  opera,  the  ''movies"  were 
not  only  going  all  the  time,  but  were  even  reaping  a 
golden  harvest.  And  while  in  Berlin  the  attractions  most 
relished  seem  to  have  been  farces,  etc.,  in  Vienna  the 
serious  drama  and  standard  operas  were  preferred,  al- 
though the  Vienna  and  Budapest  type  of  operette  was 
also  well  patronised.  Dancing,  however,  which  at  first 
went  on  unrestrained  and  of  which  diversion  the  Aus- 
trian and  Hungarian  people  are  proverbially  fond,  as 
well  as  certain  other  more  noisy  and  objectionable  amuse- 
ments were,  after  the  lapse  of  eight  months  of  war,  re- 
stricted and  at  last  entirely  prohibited.  Public  opinion 
sanctioned  this,  the  press  pointing  out  that  it  was  a  dic- 
tate of  humanity  and  decency  to  forego  such  pleasures 
in  the  days  of  the  "grosses  Sterhen"  {i.e.,  "huge  dy- 
ing") at  the  front,  and  when  so  many  thousands  of  poor 
women  went  about  in  their  weeds. 

One  other  feature  brought  about  by  the  war  deserves 
mention,  namely,  the  rise  in  the  standard  of  wages  and 
the  fearful  increase  in  youthful  criminality.  The  rise  in 
wages  was,  of  course,  chiefly  owing  to  the  rise  in  prices 


202     AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

generally,  and  the  latter  was  due  to  the  growing  scarcity 
of  foodstuffs  and  certain  industrial  rawstuffs,  such  as 
cotton,  wool,  leather,  fats,  etc.  But  the  increase  in  youth- 
ful criminality  had  a  different  inception,  for  it  grew 
mainly  out  of  the  temporary  or  permanent  absence  of 
the  paternal  authority.  The  same  social  symptom,  due 
to  the  same  cause,  has  been  remarked  in  the  other  bellig- 
erent countries,  including  France  and  England.  Youths 
from  14  up  were,  however,  not  alone  deprived  of  the 
guidance  of  their  fathers  or  elder  brothers,  but  they  also, 
because  of  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  competent  labour, 
w^ere  enabled  to  earn  much  more  money  than  before  the 
war.  This  led  them  by  easy  stages  to  dissipation  and 
thence  to  crime.  This  has  been  remarked  throughout 
the  monarchy.  Statistics  on  these  points,  so  far  as  avail- 
able, tell  a  regrettable  tale  in  this  connection.  In  Vienna, 
for  instance,  for  the  year  1915-16  the  increase  in  crimes 
and  serious  misdemeanours  committed  by  persons  below 
18  rose  to  340  per  cent,  of  what  it  had  been  in  1913-14. 
Returns  from  elsewhere  are  not  much  different.  And 
the  government  has  so  far  proved  practically  powerless. 
The  police  forces  are  everywhere  much  smaller  than 
during  normal  times,  since  a  large  percentage  of  the 
men  had  to  join  the  army.  Courts  and  other  civil  au- 
thorities, too,  have  a  plethora  of  additional  labour  to 
perform.  The  whole  matter  is  a  very  serious  problem 
and  will  grow  steadily  worse  until  peace  reigns  once 
more,  and  even  after. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   FOOD   QUESTION   AND    SOME   OTHERS 

General  points  about  supply  and  demand — Sharp  cleavage  between 
Austria  and  Hungary — War  slowly  resulted  in  organisation  of 
state,  provincial,  municipal  and  rural  measures  intended  to  enforce 
systematic  production,  purchase  and  equable  distribution  of  chief 
articles  of  consumption — Meat,  milk,  bread,  butter,  potatoes,  etc., 
also  some  manfactured  indispensables  as  leather,  cloth,  cotton  goods 
— Hunger  demonstrations — What  the  late  Premier,  Count  Stuergkh, 
said  about  them — Effects  of  semi-starvation  in  Austria — Hungarian 
conditions  far  better — The  Vienna  burgomaster  in  times  of  stress 
— EnoiTnous  difficulties  of  the  whole  problem — Surrogates  and  sub- 
stitutes— Nettle  fibre  vs.  cotton — Nitrates  from  air — Sandals  for 
the  poor — How  Austria-Hungary  raised  forty  billions  of  the  sinews 
of  war — Some  drastic  illustrations  and  statistics. 

In  the  piping  days  of  peace,  wliicli  now,  alas !  seem  so 
remote,  it  was  held  a  want  of  tact,  of  taste,  of  manners  in 
civilised  countries  to  discuss  the  joys  of  the  table  too 
intimately,  too  lengthily.  But  now!  Note  the  contrast. 
Since  the  hour  when  the  stringency  of  the  British  block- 
ade first  was  brought  home  to  the  shocked  feeling  of  the 
peoples  of  the  Central  Powers,  when  the  stern  spectre  of 
famine  first  began  to  haunt  the  civilian  multitudes  dwell- 
ing otherwise  in  security,  perhaps  hundreds  of  miles  be- 
hind the  embattled  fronts,  the  dread  of  ultimate  starva- 
tion would  not  down.  It  sat,  a  fearsome  guest,  a  gaunt 
monitor,  as  at  Belshazzar's  feast,  down  at  table.  In  the 
midst  of  momentary  plenty  it  cast  a  damp  on  the  spirits. 
It  was  an  ever-present,  looming,  intangible,  all-pervasive 
peril  from  which,  despite  brave  words,  there  seemed  no 

203 


204    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

escape.  With  pithy,  grappling  force  and  truth  did  one 
of  the  British  cabinet  members  in  Parliament  liken  this 
dimly  approaching  ghost  to  the  Spanish  garrote.  In 
speaking  this  orator  seized  his  own  throat,  clutched  it 
tight,  squeezed  it  harder,  while  the  Commons  hung  on 
his  words,  and  mumbled :  ' '  Thus  it  will  be,  gentlemen- 
like  a  neckcloth  of  fate— shutting  off  breath,  throttling, 
shutting  off  life  itself." 

He  spoke  but  too  truly.  His  gruesome  siniile  seems 
being  verified ;  at  best  the  process  of  throttling  has  taken 
longer  than  he  surmised. 

For  the  past  eighteen  months  and  more  no  topic  has 
been  discussed  so  generally,  with  such  feverish  interest, 
and  absorbing  zeal  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  Austria-Hungary  (precisely,  too,  the  case  in  Ger- 
many) as  has  been  the  food  problem. 

And  is  it  any  wonder?  Little  by  little,  at  first  month 
by  month,  next  week  by  week,  then  day  by  day,  almost 
hour  by  hour,  the  lurking  issue  has  become  more  sharply 
defined,  its  outlines  more  clearly  apprehended ;  fear  of  it 
has  crept  into  hearts  at  first  undaunted.  Government 
regulations  came  tumbling  one  upon  the  other.  They 
could  not  exorcise  the  palsy.  Always  everything  re- 
solved itself  into  the  simple  question :  But  will  there  be 
enough? 

And  that  question  could  not  be  evaded.  Much,  amaz- 
ingly much,  has  been  done  by  science,  both  in  Austria- 
Hungary  and  Germany,  to  solve  the  riddle  of  how  to 
make  a  great  deal  of  little.  Under  the  sharp  spur  of 
grim  necessity  rigid  economy  in  foodstuffs  became  the 
chief  civic  virtue ;  privation  became  a  sacrificial  donation 
on  the  altar  of  patriotism;  the  latter  turned  a  pitiless 
Juggernaut  mowing  down  hecatombs  of  the  poor  and 
defenceless,  the  weak,  the  young,  the  ailing  and  the  aged. 


THE  FOOD  QUESTION  AND  SOME  OTHERS  205 

But  the  rude  question  still  remained,  staring  everybody 
in  the  face:  Will  there  be  enough? 

By  all  sorts  of  scientific  legerdemain  it  was  attempted 
to  befog  and  befool  the  crude  minds  of  the  multitude,  to 
make  them  believe,  contrary  to  the  evidence  of  their 
senses,  that  black  was  white,  and  that  the  decreasing 
rations  of  food  doled  out  to  them  really  sufficed  to  sus- 
tain their  strength  and  preserve  their  lives.  All  sorts 
of  panaceas  were  vaunted.  Inventors  turned  up  of  a 
sudden  proving  infallibly,  with  a  huge  display  of  print- 
er's ink  and  flaring  posters,  with  darksome  chemical  for- 
mulas beyond  cavil,  by  testimonials  from  the  highest 
living  authorities,  proving  past  doubt  that  certain  cakes 
of  yeast  preparation  easily  would  take  the  place  of  meat 
and  eggs,  not  alone  in  nourishing  qualities,  but  also  in 
toothsomeness,  in  keeping  the  vigour  of  body  intact, — and 
all  for  a  mere  trifle.  When  Holland  and  Germany  still 
sent  North  Sea  fish  to  Austria,  it  was  represented  to  be 
in  all  respects  the  equivalent  of  beef  or  pork.  And  some 
believed  it.  But  after  a  while  the  fish  itself  no  longer 
came.  All  manner  of  substitutes  cropped  up,  belauded 
and  introduced  on  great  authority — among  them,  for  ex- 
ample, alleged  gelatine  and  glutinous  articles  of  diet, 
several  of  them  subsequently  discovered  to  be  fraudu- 
lent, others  derived  from  processes  and  substances  dis- 
gusting and  repulsive  to  human  stomachs ;  in  some  cases 
forbidden  by  the  authorities.  Other  surrogates  for  ani- 
mal fats  (of  which  the  lack  began  to  play  havoc  with  the 
health  and  strength  of  the  working  classes  at  an  early 
stage)  were  shown  to  be  very  inferior  as  nutrients  and 
yielding  enormous  returns  to  the  manufacturers  and 
dealers,  in  some  instances  600  to  800  per  cent. 

Yet  with  it  all  the  old  question  persisted :  Will  there, 
after  all,  be  enough  to  go  around? 


206    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

This  question  of  food  is  tlie  most  interesting  one  in 
Austria-Hungary.  For  it  concerns  every  person  there 
every  day.  The  war  has  brought  the  nations  of  the 
Central  Powers  back  to  first  principles.  It  has  reduced 
life  once  more  to  its  prime  essential:  a  sufficiency  of 
nourishment.  Itis  like  a  revival  of  primordial  instincts, 
like  the  age  of  the  cave  man  back  again.  True,  the  fight- 
ing losses  touch  them  all,  in  a  way,  but  even  they,  dread- 
ful as  they  are,  come  into  immediate  personal  contact 
only  once  in  a  while  and  with  many  persons  not  at  all. 
Almost  everybody  has  sons  or  brothers  or  husbands  or 
fathers  there,  at  the  front,  far  away,  fighting  for  their 
homes  and  their  countries.  But  thousands  of  them  have 
gone  through  these  years  of  danger  unscathed,  and  even 
when  wounded  or  killed  it  is  but  one  blow,  one  shock  in 
a  long  while.  But  this  food  danger  and  food  urgency 
hammer  and  knock  at  every  door  three  times  a  day, 
and  it  demands  instant  attention,  instant  solution,  even 
if  but  a  momentary  one.  It  is  the  supreme  question.  It 
is  not  only  a  stomach  question,  but  one  of  the  soul,  of 
its  endurance  and  fitness  to  cope  %vith  the  portentous 
future  as  well. 

And  for  this  reason,  too,  it  is  perfectly  natural  that 
the  newspapers  throughout  the  monarchy,  in  all  its  poly- 
glot vocabulary,  ring  the  daily  changes  on  it.  There  is 
an  immense  variety  in  the  topic,  as  one  soon  discovers, 
albeit  at  first  flush  it  would  seem  so  concretely  simple  a 
one.  For  besides  the  mere  items  of  shifting  prices,  of 
discovering  dealers  with  possibly  some  condiments  or 
articles  out  of  the  common,  the  permanent  task  of  finding 
places  with  a  sufficient  stock  of  edibles,  and  so  on,  there 
is  the  kaleidoscopic  daily  game  of  watching  the  latest 
government  or  municipal  orders,  decrees,  publication  of 
fines  or  jail  sentences  (for  swindling  customers,  for  hid- 


THE  FOOD  QUESTION  AND  SOME  OTHERS    207 

ing  or  hoarding,  for  refusing  to  sell,  for  purloining  or 
manipulating  or  counterfeiting  "food  cards";  for  over- 
charging or  adulterating),  the  new  directions  to  be  ob- 
served in  purchasing  or  in  obtaining  ''food  cards."  All 
this  keeps  interest  at  white-heat.  It  never  is  allowed  to 
flag.  There  are  forever  later  and  latest  developments. 
Then  there  is  the  never-failing  subject  of  abusing  the 
government  for  some  new  real  or  fancied  blunder  in  food 
distribution.  That  in  itself  is  a  broad  topic.  It  serves 
as  a  safety-valve,  no  doubt.  And  certainly  in  every  part 
of  the  monarchy,  in  Austria  as  well  as  in  Hungary,  there 
have  been,  at  various  times,  committed  some  glaring  mis- 
takes. Here  as  well  as  in  Germany  it  has  been  the  large 
centres  of  population,  especially  the  industrial  ones,  that 
have  suffered  most  that  way.  This  country  ought  to 
learn  betimes  from  the  errors  committed  there. 

Food  experts  have  been  figuring  on  the  amount  of 
nourishment  absolutely  required  for  growing  children 
and  adults  to  keep  in  health  and  vigour.  And  while  their 
findings  in  different  countries,  even  in  different  parts  of 
the  same  country,  have  varied  greatly,  there  appears  to 
be  a  practical  unanimity  as  to  the  amount  below  which 
it  is  dangerous  to  go  in  this  respect.  For  the  soldier  in 
active  service  three  pounds  of  varied  edibles  per  diem 
seemed  about  the  unit.  For  civilians  performing  hard 
labour  two  pounds  and  a  half  is  considered  the  thing. 
For  women,  middle-aged  men  and  others  moderately  ex- 
ercised two  pounds  or  a  little  less  will  do.  For  children 
between  twelve  and  sixteen  rather  more  than  two  pounds 
is  requisite.  All  this  being  understood  that  albuminous 
foodstuffs  must  form  between  twenty-five  and  thirty-five 
per  cent,  of  the  whole. 

But  if  that  be  so,  then  all  Austria-Hungary  and  Ger- 
many have  been  underfed  ever  since  the  fall  of  1914. 


208  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

Measured  by  this  test,  by  the  bed  rock  of  the  essentials 
of  animal  life,  so  to  speak,  both  countries  have  now  been 
undergoing  the  slow  process  of  starvation  for  more  than 
thirty  months.  Their  vitality  must  have  been  sapped 
incredibly.  And  indeed  this  appears  truly  to  be  the  case. 
I  will  point  this  out  more  in  detail  further  below. 

The  food  problem  is  the  crucial  one.  On  its  solution 
chiefly  depends  Austria-Hungary's  ability  to  bear  the 
brunt  of  this  war  to  the  bitter  end.  To  judge  this  ques- 
tion with  a  fair  degree  of  accuracy,  a  number  of  factors 
must  be  taken  into  account.    I  will  go  into  them  seriatim. 

One  of  them  certainly  is  the  influence  of  famine — or, 
as  far  as  Hungary  goes,  of  at  least  scarcity  and  high 
prices  of  foodstuffs — on  the  general  health.  I  don't  know 
what  technically  can  be  designated  as  famine.  But  when 
even  in  Hungary  a  chicken  costs  five  dollars  and  a  goose 
twenty,  and  when  in  Vienna  a  city  employe,  a  married 
man,  confessed  to  me  that  for  the  past  two  years  he  had 
not  even  tasted  meat,  I  think  it  may  be  fairly  asserted 
that  a  condition  closely  bordering  on  famine  really  does 
exist.  When  I  left  Vienna  the  bakers'  shops  were 
besieged,  day  after  day,  by  hundreds  of  women,  children 
and  aged  men,  waiting  hours  for  their  small  rations  of 
bread — half  a  pound  per  day  each  person.  And  such 
bread!  The  fighting  men  at  the  front  are  better  off. 
But  in  the  ''hinterland"  the  civilian  population  suffers 
more  or  less  severely  from  an  insufficiency  of  nourishing 
food.  And  it  is  precisely  the  feeble  and  sickly,  the  babies, 
women,  children  and  the  aged  who  are  injured  the  most. 
It  will  be  in  the  end  a  fearful  illustration  of  the  Darwin- 
ian survival  of  the  fittest.  As  witness  the  official  sta- 
tistics of  Budapest,  the  Hungarian  capital,  for  the  twelve- 
month ending  August  31,  1916.  They  show  that,  chiefly 
owing  to  lack  of  milk,  infant  mortality  there  has  been 


THE  FOOD  QUESTION  AND  SOME  OTHERS  209 

more  than  treble  what  it  was  in  1914.  The  authentic 
figures  for  Vienna  indicate  a  similar  state.  For  the  em- 
pire as  a  whole  and  for  the  entire  civilian  population,  re- 
gardless of  age,  the  figures  are  not  now  available,  but 
from  all  sorts  of  more  or  less  reliable  reports,  such  as 
those  of  medical  associations  and  of  benevolent  societies, 
it  would  seem  that  the  number  of  deaths  due  to  lack  of 
nourishment,  wholly  or  in  part,  must  be  appalling.  Sev- 
eral physicians  of  my  acquaintance  in  Vienna  assured  me 
that  this  long-continued  malnutrition  has  wrought  havoc 
with  the  health  and  stamina  in  the  proletarian  districts  of 
the  city,  leading  to  permanent  injury  to  the  constitution 
in  most  cases,  and  to  downright  slow  starvation  in  others. 

For  a  variety  of  reasons,  some  of  them  obvious,  the 
governments  of  Austria  and  of  Hungary  do  not  choose 
to  publish  the  facts  as  to  this  matter.  Indeed,  it  is  offi- 
cially claimed  that  the  death-rate  among  adults  (leaving 
out  the  men  at  the  front)  is  lower  than  formerly.  Among 
the  leading  Austrian  traits  is  patience,  incredible  pa- 
tience, as  a  fiery  patriotism  is  an  Hungarian  one.  Yet 
with  my  own  eyes  I  have  seen  a  number  of  famine  riots 
in  Vienna. 

One  of  them  started  in  a  socialist  quarter  of  the  city 
(Hernals),  and  under  the  leadership  of  a  score  of  deter- 
mined men  and  women  the  dense  throng,  numbering  sev- 
eral thousands,  attempted  to  cleave  its  way  through  the 
cordon  of  police  to  the  abode  of  the  late  emperor,  Schoen- 
brunn,  until  dispersed  by  force.  On  another  occasion, 
late  in  September  last,  a  large  procession,  mostly  women 
and  children,  famine-crazed  and  nearly  out  of  their  wits, 
tried  to  fight  its  way  to  the  municipal  building.  Their 
intention  was  to  make  a  public  and  striking  demonstra- 
tion in  order  to  compel  the  mayor  to  provide  and  equally 
distribute  sufficient  food  for  the  needy.    This  crowd  like- 


210  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

wise  came  from  one  of  the  leading  socialist  sections  of 
the  town,  from  Ottakring,  and  many  of  the  women  form- 
ing part  of  it  looked  haggard,  desperate  and  starving. 
Some  had  pallid,  puny  babies  clinging  to  their  wasted 
bosoms.  This  multitude  also  was  beaten  back  by  the 
vigilant  police.  The  scene  impressed  me  powerfully.  It 
reminded  one  of  the  stricken  quarters  of  Paris  in  the 
year  1789,  and  of  the  grim  forerunners  of  the  great  Revo- 
lution. These  women  with  streaming  hair,  too,  seemed  to 
prefer  a  merciful  bullet  to  a  lingering  death  by  hunger. 

With  the  awful  spectacle  yet  fresh  in  my  mind  I  ob- 
tained, on  the  afternoon  of  the  same  day,  an  interview 
with  Count  Stuergkh,  then  the  premier  of  Austria,  whom 
I  interpellated  on  the  above  occurrence.  All  he  would 
say,  in  answer  to  my  questions,  was.  Yes,  the  police  had 
already  made  a  report  on  the  matter ;  that  it  was  trivial 
and  hardly  worthy  of  note ;  an  unavoidable  incident  in  a 
war  of  such  magnitude.  Nil  nisi  bonum.  The  man  is 
dead  now,  and  his  callous  reply  w^as  buried  with  him. 
And  I  do  not  care  to  repeat  and  amplify  the  accusations 
popularly  brought  against  him  and  that  had  very  likely 
done  much  to  stir  dissatisfaction  with  his  course  and  to 
arm  his  slayer  with  the  deadly  weapon.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that  he  was  either  unable  or  unwilling,  or  both,  to  handle 
successfully  the  problem  of  a  rigidly  just  and  adequate 
distribution  of  the  necessaries  of  life. 

Dr.  Weiskirchner,  the  mayor  of  Vienna,  on  the  other 
hand,  did  all  that  was  humanly  possible  to  relieve  dis- 
tress caused  by  insufficiency  of  food.  He  personally 
exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  of  his  power.  Trustworthy 
and  efficient  agents  of  his  purchased  flour  in  Hungary, 
Rumania  and  Moravia;  potatoes,  peas,  beans,  chickens 
and  geese  in  Galicia;  coal  in  Prussian  Silesia  and  Bo- 
hemia.   And  he  saw  to  it,  overcoming  every  obstacle,  that 


THE  FOOD  QUESTION  AND  SOME  OTHERS    211 

this  fuel  and  tliose  provisions  reached  the  city  even  in 
the  dead  of  winter,  and  that  they  were  sold  to  the  indi- 
gent population  at  cost  price.  In  this  way  he  expended 
31,000,000  Austrian  crowns  of  the  city's  money,  which 
has  been  slowly  refunded.  Dr.  Barczy,  mayor  of  Buda- 
pest, later  imitated  the  example  thus  set. 

Food  conditions  vary  greatly  in  different  parts  of  the 
monarchy.  They  are  vastly  better  in  Hungary  than  in 
Austria,  Hungary  being  largely  an  agricultural  country, 
whereas  in  Austria  industrial  interests  predominate. 
Normally,  Austria  imports  about  one-third  of  her  pro- 
visions, largely  from  Hungary,  the  remainder  from  Ser- 
via  and  Rumania;  from  the  latter  cereals  and  petro- 
leum, from  the  former  pigs,  sheep  and  cattle.  The  harvest 
of  1916  and  that  of  1917  will  tell  a  different  story.  The 
1916  crop  was  less  than  middling.  A  portion,  owing  to 
unfavourable  weather  prevailing  during  harvest  time,  as 
well  as  to  insufficient  help,  spoiled  on  the  ground.  It  was 
especially  deficient  in  breadstuffs,  whereas  in  hay,  in 
cattle  feed,  in  barley  and  oats  it  was  above  the  average. 
As  Hungary  now  needs  her  produce  for  her  own  popu- 
lation, relatively  little  finds  its  way  into  Austria,  even  at 
extravagant  prices.  Importation  from  Hungary  of  cer- 
tain classes  of  food  (wheat,  flour,  pork,  cattle,)  has  al- 
most entirely  ceased.  Until  spring  of  1916,  cheese, 
condensed  milk,  potatoes,  and  herrings  from  Holland, 
butter  from  Denmark,  condensed  milk,  cheese,  honey 
from  Switzerland,  and  canned  fish  from  Norway,  though 
in  steadily  diminishing  bulk  and  at  very  steep  prices, 
could  be  procured.    All  that  has  stopped  long  ago. 

If  the  foodstuffs  of  both  Hungary  and  Austria  were 
put  into  a  joint  pool,  so  to  speak,  and  the  people  of  the 
whole  monarchy  fed  out  of  it  evenly,  there  would  be  no 
serious  difficulty.     It  would  mean  that  everybody  would 


212  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

receive  about  70  per  cent,  of  the  normal  supply  of  peace 
days.  But  Hungary  is  a  sovereign  state,  just  as  much 
as  is  Austria,  and  Hungarians  do  not  propose  to  stint 
themselves  to  please  the  people  of  the  other  half  of  the 
Dual  Monarchy.  How  much  of  this  strictly  selfish  atti- 
tude may  be  due  to  the  undeniable  fact  that  there  is, 
ordinarily  speaking,  little  love  lost  even  to-day  between 
Hungarians  (still  sore  from  the  treatment  accorded  their 
country  and  nation  up  to  1867,  and  smarting  from  mu- 
tual recriminations,  jealousies  and  economic  distrust  since 
that  time)  and  Austrians,  it  is  hard  to  say.  That  it  plays, 
however,  quite  a  figure  in  these  times  of  stress  cannot 
well  be  doubted.  The  sentiment  of  dislike  still  prevail- 
ing both  in  Hungary  and  Austria,  is  so  universal  that 
it  had  to  be  reckoned  with  even  at  the  front.  Hungarians 
are  loth  to  serve  under  Austrian  leadership  and  officers, 
and  vice  versa;  neither  has  the  mingling  of  Austrians 
and  Hungarians  within  the  same  regiments  at  all  an- 
swered. Each  part  fought  loyally  and  bravely  enough 
for  the  same  ends  and  within  the  same  army;  but  near 
proximity  of  one  to  the  other  could  not  be  endured  and 
invariably  led  to  trouble  and  relaxed  discipline.  In  short, 
the  relations  subsisting  between  the  two  countries  mak- 
ing up  the  Dual  Monarchy  are  peculiar,  to  say  the  least, 
and  though  fighting  for  the  very  political  existence  of 
each  unit,  and  of  the  two  jointly,  even  this  common  mortal 
danger  has  not  drawn  Hungary  to  Austria  or  Austria 
to  Hungary.  At  best  they  have  each  striven  for  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  modus  Vivendi  that  has  held  good  for  a 
generation  or  so,  and  the  slow  progress  of  the  pending 
Ausgleich  negotiations  that  are  intended  to  put,  every 
ten  years,  the  two  halves  on  a  slightly  modified  footing 
towards  each  other,  shows  again  that,  psychologically 


THE  FOOD  QUESTION  AND  SOME  OTHERS  213 

considered,  they  have  not  been  drawn  closer  together 
since  1914. 

At  any  rate,  consistent  with  the  fact  that  Hungary  is 
and  means  to  remain  an  independent  economic  entity, 
war  or  no  war,  Austria  has  not  received  much  help  from 
Hungary  in  the  matter  of  food  supply.  And  hence,  Aus- 
tria goes  short  in  her  rations — alarmingly  short. 

During  September  and  October,  1916,  the  poor  in 
Vienna  had  to  go  without  potatoes ;  and  bread,  their  only 
other  staple,  was  sold  in  but  insufficient  bulk.  The  bread 
in  October  consisted  of  20  per  cent,  of  rye,  20  per  cent,  of 
wheat,  and  30  per  cent,  each  of  oats  and  barley.  It  was 
not  very  palatable,  but  it  was  decidedly  better  than  the 
bread  of  a  year  before,  which  contained  75  per  cent,  of 
maize,  a  cereal  which  Vienna  bakers  were  not  accustomed 
to,  and  which,  therefore,  they  did  not  know  what  to  do 
with  and  how  to  handle.  Thus  they  turned  out  a  bread 
that  was  bitter  of  taste,  heavy,  of  unpleasant  odour,  and 
hard  to  digest.  Stomach  and  intestinal  complaints  at 
that  period  increased  140  per  cent,  in  Vienna  and  vicinity. 

Prices  soared,  of  course.  By  the  autumn  of  1916  meat 
of  better  quality  ranged  from  12  to  17  crowns  per  kilo,  or 
about  $1.10  to  $1.60  the  pound.  Bacon,  ham,  sausage, 
even  higher,  and  very  hard  to  obtain  at  any  price ;  butter, 
$1  to  $1.20  a  pound;  milk,  8  cents  per  quart,  as  fixed  by 
the  government,  but  very  little  of  it ;  cheeses,  according 
to  grade,  80  cents  to  $1.40  a  pound.  But  bread  and  pota- 
toes had  legal  maximum  prices.  Bread  then  sold  at  9 
cents  the  pound,  potatoes  at  from  5  to  10  cents  the  pound, 
according  to  kind.  These  figures  have  since  enhanced  an 
average  of  about  25  to  30  per  cent. 

Mistakes  in  handling  the  food  situation  have  been 
made,  of  course,  by  the  governments  of  both  Austria  and 
Hungary.    Aside  from  a  failure  to  issue  and  enforce 


2U    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

workable  regulations  insuring  a  fair  distribution  of  the 
existing  chief  foodstuffs,  at  tolerable  prices,  the  worst  sin 
of  omission  consisted  probably  in  not  preventing  the 
hoarding  of  provisions  by  the  well-to-do  classes.  These, 
indeed,  with  few  exceptions,  have  hidden  away  immense 
stores  of  eatables  not  easily  perishable,  such  as  smoked, 
dried  and  pickled  meats  and  fish,  bacon,  ham,  sausages, 
also  flour,  macaroni,  rice,  peas,  millet,  beans,  lentils, 
pulse,  poppy  seed,  sugar,  coffee,  tea,  cocoa,  condensed 
milk,  cheese,  butter,  lard,  canned  goods,  etc.  I  venture 
to  say  that  many,  many  million  pounds  of  these  various 
comestibles  have  been  secreted,  while  the  poor  in  only 
too  many  instances  are  in  dire  need  of  food  of  any  kind. 
It  is  because  of  this  prime  longing  for  more  edibles,  too, 
that  even  the  underworld  has  shifted  its  operations. 
There  have  been  and  are  more  thefts  of  food  being  com- 
mitted throughout  the  Austria  of  to-day  than  of  any 
other  kind  of  movable  property.  So  thoroughly  has  this 
private  piling-up  of  eatables  been  done  in  Austria — and, 
though  in  smaller  degree,  in  Hungary  as  well — that  many 
articles  have  completely  disappeared  from  the  open  mar- 
ket, such  as  macaroni,  noodles,  rice,  lentils,  peas,  sardines 
and  other  preserved  fish. 

The  appointment  of  a  ''food  dictator"  in  each  of  the 
two  halves  of  the  monarchy,  though  long  delayed,  was  at 
last  accomplished,  largely  on  the  same  plan  and  with 
similarly  comprehensive  powers  as  those  conferred  on 
the  food  dictator  in  Germany.  Unfortunately  this  step 
came  too  late  to  achieve  much  in  the  face  of  the  enormous 
difficulties  in  the  way.  Conditions  seem  well-nigh  hope- 
less, unless  the  above  hoards  are  seized  and  confiscated 
for  the  common  good.  For  though  the  conquest  of  Ru- 
mania has  been  exploited  beforehand  as  a  means  of 
bringing  to  the  Central  Powers  colossal  quantities  of 


THE  FOOD  QUESTION  AND  SOME  OTHERS  215 

cereals,  this  turned  out  a  delusion,  after  all.  The  Ru- 
manian provisions  were  found  to  be  inconsiderable  when 
expected  to  supply  the  requirements  of  two  hungry  na- 
tions aggregating  120  millions  in  population.  They  were 
but  a  drop  in  the  bucket.  In  Rumania  the  same  sort 
of  tactics  had  been  pursued  which  the  Russians  had 
brought  into  play  in  the  fall  of  1915,  when  falling  back  in 
Galicia  and  Russian  Poland.  They  then  destroyed  or 
removed  all  the  foodstuffs,  cattle,  grain,  etc.,  and  even 
systematically  set  fire  to  the  fields  where  the  corn  was 
ripening. 

To  strike  a  rough  sort  of  balance,  it  might  be  said  that 
the  Austrian  people,  in  their  vast  majority,  are  now  sub- 
sisting on  about  half  the  amount  of  food  they  habitually 
consumed  before  the  war.  They  must  also  go  without 
many  accustomed  articles  of  diet.  This  is  probably 
rather  overestimating  the  quantity  than  the  reverse.  For 
the  last  harvest  showed  unmistakably  that  even  if  the 
soil  had  furnished  a  crop  more  propitious  than  it  was, 
there  were  not  enough  hands  to  garner  it.  The  monarchy 
having  hitherto  clung  to  rather  antiquated  and  primitive 
methods  of  agriculture,  there  is  nothing  like  the  same 
number  of  reapers,  threshing  machines,  etc.,  in  the  coun- 
try as  there  is  in  Germany,  and  the  absence  of  millions 
of  sturdy  men  at  the  front  means  much  more.  In  all 
likelihood  this  defect  will  prove  fatal  the  coming  harvest 
time. 

The  deficient  diet  now  adhered  to  for  30  months  and 
become  during  the  last  twelve  months  much  more  inten- 
sified than  at  first,  may  be  beneficial  for  a  time  and  with 
some  restricted  classes  of  the  population.  The  Spartan 
fare  this  war  has  imposed  upon  the  rotund  Viennese 
burgher,  for  instance — for  pleasure-loving  Vienna  has 
always  been  noted  for  overfeeding— may  be  a  blessing  in 


216    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

disguise  to  the  few.  But  only  for  a  time  is  this  true. 
The  limit  has  long  ago  been  exceeded.  And  with  that 
far  more  numerous  part  of  the  population  whose  means 
at  no  time  admitted  of  such  a  surfeit,  the  case  is  much 
more  serious.  At  the  front,  of  course,  the  matter  is  dif- 
ferent. There,  in  fact,  innumerable  soldiers — in  civil 
life  mountaineers,  peasants,  field  labourers,  herdsmen, 
woodcutters  and  timbermen,  etc. — are  still  receiving 
much  more  meat  and  rich  food  than  they  have  been  accus- 
tomed to,  and  more  than  is  good  for  them,  since  they  had 
fared  all  their  lives  on  mush  and  gruel,  milk,  eggs  and 
bread.  But  their  supplies  will  not  help  the  half-starving 
civilians  far  away. 

In  connection  with  the  food  problem  I  will  mention  that 
during  several  visits  w^hich  I  paid  to  large  prison  and 
detention  camps,  careful  investigation  proved  that  the 
charge  repeatedly  made  in  the  foreign  press,  that  these 
wards  were  purposely  underfed,  is  groundless.  The 
prisoners  looked  to  me,  with  relatively  few  exceptions, 
healthy  and  strong.  To  be  sure,  they  nearly  all  com- 
plained of  insufficient  food;  but  Austria  makes  reply  to 
that  by  saying  that  they  receive  as  much  as  or  more  food 
than  the  labouring  civilians  of  her  own  population,  and 
that  she  cannot  afford  to  treat  her  enemies  better  than 
her  own  people. 

Intimately  allied  to  the  food  shortage  is  also  the  short- 
age or  entire  absence  of  industrial  products  hitherto  con- 
sidered indispensable  in  civilised  countries,  and  the  im- 
portation of  which  first  greatly  diminished  and  then 
wholly  ceased  in  consequence  of  the  increasing  strin- 
gency of  the  British  blockade  and  the  steps  taken  by 
England  to  prevent  neutral  neighbouring  countries, 
chiefly  Scandinavia  and  Holland,  from  supplying  the  de- 
ficiency.   This  fact,  it  is  well  known,  plays  also  an  im- 


THE  FOOD  QUESTION  AND  SOME  OTHERS  217 

portant  part  in  tlie  tottering  economic  life  of  the  Central 
Powers,  and  owing  to  the  less  efficient  industrialism  of 
Austria-Hungary  the  consequences  have  been,  quite  early 
in  the  titanic  struggle,  much  more  deleterious  there  than 
in  Germany.  To  offset  this  partially  at  least  much  has 
been  done  in  the  monarchy. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  attempts  to  supply  a  sub- 
stitute for  the  real  article  is  the  systematic  utilisation 
of  the  nettle  fibre  in  lieu  of  cotton.  The  last  years  before 
the  war  Austria-Hungary  and  Germany  imported  on  an 
annual  average  over  one  hundred  million  dollars'  worth 
of  American  cotton  alone.  Cotton  mills  in  Austria 
rapidly  increased  in  number  and  output.  They  largely 
supplied  the  Balkan  with  cotton  goods  of  their  make. 
Importation  ceased.     Soon  there  was  lack  of  raw  cotton. 

It  was  an  Austrian  scientific  expert,  Dr.  Gottfried 
Richter  of  Vienna,  who  after  painstaking  experiments 
dating  back  some  fifteen  years,  in  the  fall  of  1914  at  last 
hit  upon  a  method  of  decortation  by  means  of  which  the 
fibre  of  the  ordinary  middle-European  nettle  plant,  the 
stinging-nettle  so-called,  for  the  first  time  has  been  made 
commercially  available  for  spinning  and  weaving  cloths 
of  every  kind  not  only  equal,  but  in  several  respects 
actually  superior,  to  cotton  products.  His  invention  was 
for  some  time  theoretically  and  practically  tested  from 
every  point  of  view,  and  found  to  answer  all  reasonable 
requirements. 

These  tests  began  in  the  fall  of  1914  and  have  lasted, 
even  after  the  invention  began  to  be  fructified,  until  the 
present  hour.  Quite  a  number  of  other  chemists  had 
laboured  for  a  long  time  before  to  solve  the  same  problem 
of  making  the  nettle  fibre — of  which  before  the  advent 
of  cotton,  centuries  ago,  certain  fine  and  costly  cloths 
had  been  spun,  especially  for  ladies'  kerchiefs — com- 


218  AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

mercially  available.  At  one  time,  late  in  the  80 's,  Bis- 
marck had  sought  to  encourage  this  by  offering  large 
government  premiums  in  Germany.  The  one  great 
drawback  to  the  nettle  fibre,  its  excess  of  vegetable  glue, 
could  not  be  overcome,  except  at  relatively  high  cost  and 
by  tedious  and  repeated  processes  of  maceration.  But 
the  Richter  process,  as  above  stated,  did  at  last  obviate 
this  great  difficulty. 

Without  going  into  all  the  details,  suffice  it  to  say  that 
since  the  spring  of  1915  nettle  fibre  has  been  obtained  on 
a  large  scale,  both  in  Austria-Hungary  and  in  Germany, 
and  has  been  utilised  for  the  manufacture  of  both  coarse 
and  fine  yarns,  out  of  which  cambric,  sheetings,  cloths  of 
various  grades,  and  other  stuifs  have  been  made. 

To  do  this  successfully  two  things  had  to  precede  it: 
Namely,  the  extensive  growing,  harvesting  and  preparing 
of  the  raw  nettle  fibre ;  and,  secondly,  the  adapting  of  all 
the  machinery  used  in  mills  and  factories  w^here  hitherto 
but  cotton  yarns  had  been  spun.  The  first  of  these,  the 
obtaining  of  raw  material  in  sufficient  quantities,  was  not 
as  hard  as  the  second.  The  weed  itself,  the  nettle,  grows 
in  enormous  masses  on  waste  and  unoccupied  soil,  both 
in  Germany  and  Austria-Hungary.  During  1916  vast 
tracts  and  waste  lands,  aggregating  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  acres,  have  been  specially  utilised  for  nettle 
growing  in  the  three  countries.  Much  of  the  rocky  and 
otherwise  sterile  land  of  Austria  particularly  is  splen- 
didly adapted  to  the  cultivation  of  the  nettle,  and  under 
cultivation  the  plant  itself  improves  and  its  raw  fibre 
obtains  a  higher  value  for  textile  purposes.  Cheap  la- 
bour, mainly  that  of  peasant  women  and  children,  is  also 
in  abundance. 

The  adapting  of  the  various  machinery  to  its  novel 
material  proved  not  so  easy.     There  were  failures  at 


THE  FOOD  QUESTION  AND  SOME  OTHERS  219 

first,  but  this  difficulty  also  adjusted  itself  after  awliile, 
and  in  the  spring  of  1915  the  first  cotton  mills  in  Bohe- 
mia, chiefly  in  Reichenbach  and  the  outlying  districts, 
were  turning  out  finished  product.  At  that  time  this  was 
only  done  on  a  small  scale.  The  whole  thing  was  as  yet  in 
the  experimental  stage.  But  during  the  past  year  the 
manufacture  of  standard  commodities  has  been  done  on 
quite  an  extensive  scale.  Exact  figures  are  not  at  my 
disposal,  but,  as  a  rough  estimate  from  the  data  in  my 
possession,  I  should  say  that  the  output  of  nettle  stuffs 
of  various  grades  totaling  some  twenty-six  million  yards 
and  of  a  selling  value  of  about  $3,450,000,  has  been  turned 
out  by  the  Austrian  mills  alone.  These  are,  in  this 
matter,  ahead  of  Germany,  and,  of  course,  also  of  Hun- 
gary. No  reliable  figures  can  be  quoted  from  either  of 
the  last  named  two  countries  as  yet.  But  there,  too,  the 
matter  has  now  passed  beyond  the  merely  experimental. 

Early  last  fall,  during  October,  contracts  were  made, 
both  on  the  part  of  the  governments  and  by  private  con- 
cerns, for  the  enormous  extension  of  nettle  raising,  har- 
vesting, preparation  and  spinning  of  the  fibre  during  the 
season  of  1917.  This  applies  to  both  empires.  It  may 
be  expected  that  in  the  fall  of  the  current  year  enough 
of  the  nettle  fibre  will  be  worked  up  into  textiles  of  every 
grade  to  go  far  towards  supplying  at  least  the  most 
pressing  needs  of  the  two  countries. 

This  is  especially  true  as  regards  the  requirements 
of  the  army.  I  myself  saw,  four  months  ago,  strong, 
durable  and  rather  handsome  nettle  cloth  worked  up  into 
uniforms  for  the  Austrian  and  Hungarian  soldiers.  It 
seemed  a  mixture,  in  about  equal  proportions,  of  nettle 
fibre  and  wool.  It  did  not  shrink,  was  warm  and  very 
serviceable.  The  nettle  fibre  gave  it  a  peculiar  silky 
gloss. 


220    AUSTEIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

The  number  of  spinning  mills  adapting  themselves  to 
this  new  textile  fibre  is  steadily  increasing.  It  seems 
certain  that  this  whole  evolution  is  not  a  mere  temporary 
thing,  but  that  account  will  have  to  be  taken  of  it  for 
the  time  after  the  war. 

Rubber  is  another  commodity  much  needed.  All  the 
** synthetic"  rubbers  produced  in  chemical  laboratories, 
both  in  Austria-Hungary  and  Germany,  turned  out  a 
delusion  and  a  snare.  Every  bit  of  manufactured  rubber 
within  the  monarchy  was  seized  for  army  requirements 
long  ago.  Each  pound  of  hard,  brittle,  used  rubber  was 
"renovated"  chemically.  Hospital  needs  are,  perhaps, 
the  greatest  as  to  rubber.  For  autos  new  tires  were 
made  of  elastic  wire  springs,  but  they  are  inferior. 

The  scarcity  of  leather  is  another  drawback.  Sole 
leather  is  no  longer  procurable,  save  for  army  uses. 
Children  rich  and  poor  have  taken  to  wearing  sandals,  all 
of  wood  but  the  straps.  And  thus  it  is  that  from  dawn 
till  night,  in  every  street  and  lane  and  alley  of  Austrian 
and  Hungarian  towns,  you  will  hear  the  chorus:  clip- 
clap,  clip-clap!  made  by  myriads  of  clattering,  active, 
restless  children.  Adults  wear  felt  slippers  or  have  their 
soles  renewed  by  plastering  them  over  with  thin  strips  of 
old  leather  cut  off  from  derelict  footwear. 

Nitrogen  from  the  air — another  eminently  important 
chemical  process,  and  one  which  in  Germany  has  scored 
triumphs  during  the  past  two  years.  In  Austria  the  proc- 
ess was  introduced  by  experts  sent  from  Berlin,  and 
some  success  has  been  attained,  but  far  behind  Ger- 
many's agricultural  industry.  Indeed,  fertiliser  of  any 
kind  has  not  been  in  much  use,  in  Austria-Hungary,  up 
to  the  war. 

Since  the  war  began  I  have  made  the  circuit  of  Aus- 
tria-Hungary twice,  inquiring  and  observing.    From  per- 


THE  FOOD  QUESTION  AND  SOME  OTHERS  221 

sonal  study  I  may  say  that  industry,  trade  and  general 
business  are,  so  far  as  data  are  obtainable,  in  a  sur- 
prisingly flourishing  state.  What  are  known  as  ^'war 
industries"  partake,  of  course,  most  largely  of  this  pros- 
perity, short-lived  and  inherently  fallacious  as  it  may  be. 
Hundreds  of  new  millionaire  contractors  and  dealers  in 
army  supplies  have  sprung  up. 

But  the  manner  in  which  Austria-Hungary  has  raised 
the  sinews  of  war  by  her  own  unaided  strength  compels 
admiration.  Notoriously  a  land  not  abounding  in  liquid 
capital,  the  Hungarian  half  indeed  greatly  dependent  on 
foreign  investors,  she  has  issued  six  war  loans,  nearly 
altogether  subscribed  for  by  her  own  population  and 
totalling  some  forty  billions  of  Austrian  crowns.  With 
that,  the  number  of  individual  subscribers,  running  as 
they  do  high  into  the  millions,  and  the  many  small 
amounts,  show  that  the  middle  and  even  the  labouring 
classes  vie  with  the  wealthier  ones  in  patriotism  and 
confidence  in  an  ultimate  favourable  peace. 

In  round  numbers,  Austria-Hungary  has  up  to  the 
present  put  some  five  millions  and  a  half  of  men  into 
the  field.  That  means  in  excess  of  ten  per  cent,  of  the 
total  population.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  from 
the  available  men  of  physical  fitness  and  military  age 
very  large  deductions  had  to  be  made.  Take  Galicia, 
for  instance.  That  province  with  its  eight  millions  is. 
the  most  populous  in  Austria.  In  the  wake  of  the  Rus- 
sian invasion,  at  the  very  outset  of  the  war,  and  until  the 
fall  of  1915,  at  the  orders  of  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas 
Nicholayevitch,  the  generalissimo,  between  350,000  and 
400,000  males  of  Galicia  were  sent  off  from  the  occupied 
districts  of  that  province  into  the  interior  of  Russia, 
many  of  them  as  far  as  Siberia  or  the  Volga  districts, 
with  the  view  of  diminishing  Austria-Hungary's  military 


222  AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

resources.  To  that  extent,  therefore,  the  armies  of  the 
monarchy  were  weakened.  Again,  in  South  Tyrol  and 
along  the  Adriatic  coast  line,  long  before  hostilities  were 
actually  declared  by  Italy,  a  considerable  percentage  of 
the  men  of  Italian  stock,  won  over  by  the  unremitting 
Italian  propaganda,  had  gone  over  the  border  and  joined 
the  foe. 

Thus  it  happens  that  while  in  Germany  45  years  is 
the  age  limit  of  the  men  sent  to  the  front,  in  Austria  it 
was  50  quite  early  in  the  struggle,  and  for  some  months 
this  limit  was  raised  to  55  years,  in  Hungary  at  least. 
For  a  considerable  time,  youths  from  17  upwards,  if 
strong  and  fit  enough,  have  been  enrolled  in  the  ranks 
of  the  fighters.  Not  alone  that,  however.  The  physical 
standard  for  the  men  and  boys  called  to  arms  has  steadily 
been  lowered,  until  to-day  even  those  with  incipient  tuber- 
culosis or  otherwise  showing  grave  defects  are  included. 

That  under  these  circumstances  the  men  of  Austria- 
Hungary  are  fighting  as  well  as  they  undoubtedly  do,  is 
one  of  the  marvels  of  this  unprecedented  war,  especially 
if  one  considers  the  enormous  hardships  they  have  to 
undergo  all  along  in  such  sections  of  the  front  as  the 
Tyrolese  mountain  ranges,  the  Carpathians,  and  part  of 
the  foremost  line  towards  Russia. 

But,  after  all,  it  is  the  food  question  mainly  which  will 
decide  the  war  as  a  whole. 

I  recall,  with  a  strange  clutching  at  my  heart,  the  last 
time  I  sat  at  an  Austrian  family  table.  On  my  right  was 
a  demure  little  lady  of  five,  with  curly  head  and  big, 
innocent  eyes,  and  she  laughed  and  prattled  as  only 
children  of  pleasure-loving,  joyous  Vienna  can,  I  think. 
The  host,  too,  was  gay  and  debonair,  as  he  toasted 
'*  America"  in  the  fiery  gTape  juice  of  Grinzing.     But  all 


THE  FOOD  QUESTION  AND  SOME  OTHERS  223 

of  a  sudden  a  shadow  seemed  to  fall  athwart  the  table, 
and  everybody  became  silent.  It  was  the  haunting  fear 
of  Austria-Hungary,  the  fear  of  ultimate  starvation,  that 
had  stalked  in  and  frozen  us  all. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

ECONOMIC  TKOUBLES  AND  THEIK  REMEDY 

Astounding  backwardness  in  the  material  development  of  Austria-Hun- 
gary— Agricultural  methods,  with  the  exception  of  few  provinces, 
quite  primitive — Little  use  of  labour-saving  devices — Small  imports 
in  fertiliser — Average  annual  yield,  according  to  official  war  statis- 
tics, for  the  whole  monarchy  only  slightly  over  half  that  per  acre 
in  Germany — And  this  despite  a  more  fertile  soil — Hungary  es- 
pecially behind — Bohemia  again  leads — Austrian  and  Hungarian  in- 
dustry largely  the  product  of  German  enterprise  and  management 
— Finances  altogether  in  Jewish  hands — Foreign  capital  invested 
— French  and  Belgian  loans  and  investments  before  the  war — Rail- 
roads now  mainly  under  state  ownership  or  control — Some  excep- 
tions— Railroads  do  not  pay — The  question  of  water  power — Few 
captains  of  industry — Capital  locked  np  in  land — Outlook  under 
more  progressive  conditions. 

Teavelling  to  and  fro  in  Austria-Hungary  and  asking 
the  why  and  wherefore  of  things,  the  foreign  observer 
is  struck  by  the  material  retrogression  of  the  country 
when  viewed  as  a  whole.  The  decisive  test  in  this  re- 
spect must  be  the  state  of  agriculture.  In  Hungary, 
counting  in  the  rural  day  labourers,  ahnost  76  per  cent, 
of  the  total  population  are  engaged  in  occupations  con- 
nected with  cultivation  of  the  soil.  In  the  other  half, 
in  Austria,  but  48  per  cent,  are  agriculturally  employed. 
For  the  entire  Dual  Monarchy,  taking  due  account  of  the 
population  in  both  halves,  the  figure,  therefore,  comes  to 
62  per  cent.  True,  there  are  large  tracts  barren  and  al- 
most wholly  unproductive.    This  is  the  case,  for  instance, 

224 


ECONOMIC  TROUBLES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY  225 

in  the  so-called  Karst  or  Carso  lands,  the  steep  moun- 
tain ridges  fronting  Italy  in  tlie  region  of  Carinthia, 
Carniola,  Gradiska  and  Gorz  (or  Gorizia,  as  the  Italians 
have  baptised  it) ;  it  also  applies  to  most  of  Dalmatia,  to 
the  whole  of  Croatia,  to  portions  of  the  Tyrol,  of  Styria, 
to  the  more  elevated  sections  of  the  Transylvanian  Al- 
pine range,  and  even  to  districts  of  Upper  Austria  and 
the  Carpathians.  The  Karst,  for  example,  is  one  of  the 
most  forbidding  areas  to  be  found  anywhere  in  Europe. 
Its  arid,  scarred  plateaus  and  valleys,  its  abrupt  declivi- 
ties and  serrated  mountains  are  sterile  and  unproductive 
in  exceptional  degree.  On  its  bare  rocks  not  even  weeds 
will  grow.  And  the  Slovene  population  dwelling  there 
in  an  inhospitable  climate,  exposed  to  keen  northern 
winds,  although  perhaps  the  most  abstemious  race  under 
the  canopy,  are  but  able  to  wring  enough  from  this  un- 
grateful, infertile  ground  to  keep  them  from  starvation. 
And  this,  too,  they  have  been  enabled  to  accomplish  only 
by  a  system  which,  I  believe,  is  unique  in  the  world.  I 
refer  to  the  dolinen — ^hollows  of  restricted  size  which  the 
forces  of  nature — mountain  torrents,  snow  and  rain,  have 
gradually,  in  the  course  of  many  centuries,  scooped 
out  on  these  bleak  plateaus,  in  spots  more  or  less  shel- 
tered from  the  rough  and  desiccating  blasts  that  sweep  in 
from  the  north  and  east  during  most  of  the  year.  Pain- 
fully digging  up  earth  clinging  here  and  there  to  tree- 
studded  chasms,  often  miles  and  miles  away  from  their 
miserable  homes,  these  sturdy  Slovene  peasants,  with 
their  wives  and  children  have  carried  such  crumbs  of 
earth  to  the  dolinen  in  baskets,  sacks  and  vessels,  even 
in  aprons  and  bedsheets,  and  emptied  them  there,  weight- 
ing this  earth  down  against  the  blustering  wind  with 
stones.  Then  they  fenced  in  these  bits  of  soil,  watering, 
tending  them,  watching  them  with  unremitting  care,  and 


226    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

planting  seeds,  sowing  these  strips  with  infinite  patience, 
until  they  bore  scant  fruit  of  every  kind.  A  doline,  com- 
prising an  acre  or  two  of  such  soil,  is  a  marvel.  Their 
owner  is  a  man  of  consequence  in  his  commune.  He  is 
regarded  as  relatively  wealthy.  The  possessor  of  sev- 
eral such  dolmen  is  a  Croesus,  universally  envied.  The 
produce  gotten  out  of  such  usually  oval  or  circle-shaped 
hollows  is  varied.  From  Indian  corn  and  oats,  barley 
and  millet,  it  ranges  to  melons  and  all  sorts  of  vegetables 
which,  packed  snug  and  tight,  the  wife  and  daughters 
will  then  carry,  again  on  their  backs,  down  to  the  larger 
villages  and  towns,  quite  a  distance  away,  to  sell  in 
summer  and  fall.  Dalmatia,  grand  in  scenery,  is  likewise 
niggardly  in  productive  soil.  Mostly  it  is  a  narrow  green 
fringe  on  the  Adriatic  coast,  with  boldly  rising  bare 
mountains  behind.  Its  population,  wholly  and  pro- 
nouncedly Slav  in  all  but  the  few  ports  and  coast  towns 
like  Cattaro,  Ragusa,  Spalato  (where  there  is  an  Italian 
element  numbering  altogether  not  exceeding  25,000),  and 
even  on  the  hundreds  of  islands  that  lie  dreaming  in  im- 
perishable beauty  on  the  bosom  of  the  purple  sea,  live  in 
dire  poverty.  In  their  half-oriental  and  wholly  pictur- 
esque costume  they  may  be  seen  wandering  about  the 
more  prosperous  provinces  of  the  monarchy,  as  pedlars, 
knife-grinders,  etc.,  by  the  hundreds — tall,  sinewy  fel- 
lows, typical  mountaineers  with  their  hawk-like  faces. 
Istria,  again,  all  but  a  small  portion  by  the  seaside,  is 
arid  and  poor.  And  up  in  the  Alpine  regions  of  Transyl- 
vania also  very  little  is  growing  that  man  may  use. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  Austria-Hungary  judged  as  a 
whole  is  decidedly  more  fertile  than  Germany.  Over  in 
the  Teutonic  empire  there  are  no  such  marvellous  gar- 
den spots  as,  for  instance,  the  Alfold  of  the  Hungarian 
lowlands.     That  Alfold  is  a  region — the  most  extensive 


ECONOMIC  TROUBLES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY  227 

of  its  kind  in  the  whole  of  Europe — which  alone  equals 
half  of  Germany  in  intrinsic  productiveness.  And  Bo- 
hemia is  a  country  of  great  natural  fertility.  There  are 
other  portions  of  the  monarchy — most  of  Moravia,  for 
example,  which  is  a  district  where  wheat  and  every  kind 
of  fruit,  dairy  products  and  vegetables  flourish  and 
where  the  peasantry  are  well-to-do  and  even  rich,  and 
Silesia,  the  province  of  Lower  Austria  and  a  good  part 
of  Styria  and  Salzburg — ^which  are  only  second  to  the 
wonderful  Alfold  in  yielding.  Withal  the  climate  of 
Austria-Hungary  is  pleasant  and  healthful,  moderate  in 
summer  and  winter.  In  its  southern  half  it  is  nearly  as 
warm  as  northern  Italy.  But  it  is  true  that  the  climatic 
changes  are  more  sudden  than  in  Germany  and  that,  on 
the  whole,  the  rainfall  is  neither  as  regular  nor  as  plenti- 
ful. There  are  exceptions.  Salzburg,  a  little  duchy 
famous  for  its  salines  and  scenery,  bears  the  reputation 
of  rivalling  the  Scottish  Highlands  in  its  abundance  of 
foggy,  rainy  weather.  But  speaking  generally,  Austria- 
Hungary  is  certainly  dryer  than  Germany.  However, 
with  its  actual  advantages  of  soil  and  climate  the  Dual 
Monarchy  ought  to  produce,  acre  for  acre,  at  least  as 
much  as  its  neighbour  to  the  northwest. 

But  what  do  we  find?  Instead  of  that  we  find  that 
the  average  annual  yield  per  acre  of  cultivated  soil  is, 
for  the  whole  monarchy,  but  about  58  per  cent,  that  of 
Germany.  For  Hungary,  an  agricultural  country  par 
excellence,  the  relative  proportion  is  even  much  less, 
namely,  but  52 ;  for  Austria  proper  it  rises  to  about  63. 
And  the  cause  of  this  startling  phenomenon?  Nothing 
but  the  primitive  methods  still  in  vogue  in  most  of 
Austria-Hungary.  Not  alone  is  the  use  of  labour-saving 
machinery  still  very  small  (there  being,  to  speak  with 
exactness,  but  one-tenth  as  many  motor  ploughs,  drillers, 


228    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

threshers,  reapers  and  other  devices  in  the  whole  mon- 
archy as  there  are  in  Germany),  but  the  whole  science 
of  agriculture  is  on  a  much  lower  plane.  More  particu- 
larly the  rotation  of  crops,  the  manner  of  ploughing,  the 
preventives  against  damage  by  vermin,  and  (the  main 
item!)  the  amount  of  periodical  enriching  of  the  ex- 
hausted soil  by  means  of  artificial  fertilisers  are  be- 
hind the  times  and  wholly  inadequate.  Official  figures 
published  during  the  war  by  the  governments  of  Austria 
and  Hungary  called  attention  to  these  facts.  In  the  mat- 
ter of  a  supply  of  guano,  potash,  phosphates,  Hungary 
is  the  greatest  sinner.  That  country  has  never  imported 
more  than  about  50,000  tons  of  these  commodities  during 
any  one  year.  Estates  which  ought  to  have  yielded  about 
25  bushels  of  cereals  per  acre  did  not  yield  more  than 
eight.  Besides  the  traditional  farm  dungheap  in  front 
of  the  peasant's  hut  no  other  manure  is  used,  or  even 
known  of.  The  soil  of  the  Alfold,  although  apparently 
inexhaustible,  is  being  impoverished  year  after  year.  So 
much  so  that  the  crops  of  Hungary,  with  a  rapidly  in- 
creasing population,  are  steadily  diminishing.  But  a  few 
years  ago  she  was  able  to  export  an  average  of  41  per 
cent,  of  her  whole  crop  to  Austria  and  Germany.  This 
has  dwindled  to-day  to  but  33.  Extensive  agriculture  in 
Hungary  and,  in  a  less  pronounced  way,  in  Austria,  too, 
has  also  something  to  do  with  it.  In  Hungary  a  score 
or  so  of  the  noble  historical  families  and  Magnates  (the 
Palffys,  Esterhazys,  Zichys,  Serenyis,  etc.)  own  one-sixth 
of  the  soil ;  but  they  produce  only  about  one-fifteenth  of 
the  crop.  In  Bohemia  a  handful  of  the  wealthiest  aris- 
tocrats, with  the  Princes  Schwarzenberg  at  their  head, 
are  possessors  of  seven  per  cent,  of  the  whole  kingdom, 
and  they,  too,  harvest  but  about  two  per  cent,  of  the 
total  yield.    It  is  similar  elsewhere.    Too  much  is  left 


ECONOMIC  TROUBLES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY  229 

uncultivated,  mostly  for  hunting  purposes,  while  in  other 
districts  the  peasants  have  to  sell  out  and  emigrate  be- 
cause of  lacking  land.  This  is  even  true  of  such  provinces 
in  the  heart  of  Austria  as  Lower  and  Upper  Austria,  and 
not  only  of  Galicia  or  Croatia.  The  government,  the  par- 
liaments, have  done  little,  if  anything,  to  counteract  these 
evil  effects  of  an  unequal  distribution  of  the  arable  land. 
In  Styria,  a  province  of  unrivalled  scenic  attractions,  the 
population  of  which  is  more  than  two-thirds  of  Teuton 
strain,  there  has  been  intense  dissatisfaction  for  years 
over  this  problem  of  land  tenure.  Thousands  of  her 
''forest  peasantry,"  as  sturdy  and  patriotic  stock  as 
there  is  anywhere,  have  been  dispossessed  by  capitalistic 
land  speculators  who  have  crowded  them  out.  These 
peasants  afterwards,  with  little  money  in  their  pockets, 
went  to  swell  the  socialist  proletariat  in  the  cities,  or  else 
emigrated  to  Canada  or  the  United  States,  a  serious  loss 
to  their  native  country. 

On  the  face  of  it,  too,  it  is  singular  that  both  meats 
and  cereals,  as  well  as  dairy  products  like  butter  and 
cheese,  even  before  the  war,  years  and  years  ago,  have 
been  higher  in  price  than  in  more  densely  peopled  and 
less  agricultural  Germany.  But  some  of  the  points  cited 
above  go  far  to  explain  the  curious  fact.  Even  in  Hun- 
gary itself,  where  seven  persons  out  of  every  ten  are 
tillers  of  the  soil,  prices  of  the  necessaries  of  life  rule 
higher.  And  while  much  discussion  is  going  on  all  the 
while  in  the  press  of  the  monarchy,  no  serious  steps  to  im- 
prove these  essentially  unhealthy  conditions  have  been 
taken  or  even  proposed  in  either  half.  There  are,  truth 
to  tell,  certain  outlying  provinces,  such  as  Galicia  and 
Bosnia-Hercegovina,  where  living  is  still  cheap  and  the 
products  of  the  country  command  but  very  low  prices. 
But  that  again  is  owing  to  abnormal  conditions  (amongst 


230    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

which  distance  from  markets  and  scarcity  of  railroads 
and  other  ready  means  of  communication  must  be  classed 
first),  and  can  hardly  be  termed  a  benefit  to  the  country 
as  a  whole. 

To  what  an  extent  a  sober  spirit  of  progress,  coupled 
with  steady  industry,  may  promote  husbandry  in  all  its 
aspects,  can  best  be  seen  in  Bohemia.  That  little  coun- 
try, some  sixty  years  ago,  was  still  deep  in  mediasvalism 
regarding  tillage  of  its  soil.  Now  it  produces  propor- 
tionately the  most.  Its  average  per  acre  is  highest  in 
the  whole  monarchy.  Thoroughly  modem  and  sensible 
methods  have  been  adopted.  With  a  climate  perceptibly 
less  clement  than  in  provinces  to  the  south  and  with  soil 
of  only  moderate  fertility,  it  has  outstripped  them  all. 
And  this  applies  both  to  the  Czech  and  the  Teutonic  part 
of  it.  If  a  few  of  her  princely  land-owners  could  be  made 
to  disgorge  some  hundreds  of  thousands  of  their  acres, 
Bohemia  would  be  still  better  off  in  this  respect. 

While  on  this  topic  another  point  deserves  mention. 
That  is  the  excessive  number  of  holidays  observed  in  the 
Dual  Monarchy.  There  is  but  one  country  in  Europe 
that  excels  her — Russia.  But  in  Austria,  for  instance, 
the  holidays  kept  and  enjoined  by  Church  and  State  rise 
to  85  per  annum.  This  perennial  merrymaking  and  ab- 
stention from  labour  suits,  no  doubt,  the  temper  of  a 
happy-go-lucky  population.  But  its  economic  effects,  in 
an  age  when  rivalry  and  competition  among  the  various 
nations  are  keen  and  likely  to  become  keener,  are  nothing 
short  of  deplorable.  Two  holidays  usually  falling  to- 
gether, or  else  towards  the  close  of  the  week,  a  third  one 
is  added  by  many  roystering  persons  of  both  sexes,  and 
the  outcome  is  not  only  a  grave  loss  in  earnings  all 
around,  but  also  too  often  in  diligence  and  morals.  Yet 
the  Church  not  only  encourages  this  state  of  things,  but 


ECONOMIC  TROUBLES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY  231 

praises  it  as  conducive  to  true  piety.  The  socialist  par- 
ties also  are  against  a  reduction  of  these  days  of  leisure 
— too  often  they  are  days  of  debauchery  as  well — taking 
the  ground  that  it  is  good  to  get  all  the  fun  possible  out 
of  life,  and  that  there  can  never  be  enough  of  that,  while 
the  State  silently  lends  its  weight  to  this  view  of  things. 

Now  it  will  have  been  noticed  that  these  drawbacks 
to  a  healthy  and  progressive  state  of  agriculture  through- 
out the  Dual  Monarchy  are  not  inherent;  that  is,  they 
are  nearly  all  remediable.  And  an  enlightened  and  ener- 
getic government,  consistently  supported  by  the  two  par- 
liaments, could  soon  retrieve  things.  But  that  presup- 
poses once  more  that  the  race  strife,  which  hitherto  has 
pre-empted  most  of  the  political  energy  of  the  land,  will 
happily  be  ended. 

As  to  the  industry  and  the  manufactures  of  Austria- 
Hungary,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  they  are  largely 
owing  their  inception  and  their  present  relative  pros- 
perity to  German  incentive — that  is,  German  from  the 
neighbouring  empire.  Technically  in  particular  both  Aus- 
tria and  Hungary  rest  largely  on  outside  help  from  Ger- 
many. Many  of  the  German  secret  processes  of  manu- 
facture have  been  introduced  there  and  are  in  successful 
use.  The  whole  chemical  and  dye  industry  is  of  German 
creation,  and  would  collapse  if  that  support  were  with- 
drawn. The  cloth  mills  of  Bohemia,  the  cotton  mills 
every^v^here,  the  iron  and  steel  works  of  Styria,  Bohemia 
and  Carinthia,  are  mostly  German-managed.  So  are, 
with  few  exceptions,  the  munitions  works.  The  electric 
power  industry  (still  in  its  infancy,  however)  in  Styria, 
Carniola,  Carinthia,  depends  on  Germany  proficiency. 
Many  of  the  technical  directors  everywhere  are  Gennans 
from  the  empire — so-called  Reichsdeutsche,  as  the  Aus- 
trians  term  them — or  of  German  extraction.    It  is  only 


232    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

tlieir  aid,  their  officiency,  which  enable  Austria  to  hold  her 
owTi  in  these  lines.  Most  of  the  mines  are  owned  by  the 
government  and  operated  according  to  antiquated  meth- 
ods ;  still,  they  are  yielding  a  handsome  return  and  are,  to 
that  extent,  reducing  taxation.  But  thorough  geological 
surveys  have  never  been  made;  there  is  no  doubt  that 
many  deposits  of  rich  ore  are  still  awaiting  exploitation. 
This  applies  still  more  to  Hungary  whose  mineral  wealth 
has  barely  been  scratched,  especially  in  Transylvania, 
Croatia  and  also  in  Dalmatia.  Austria  owns  and  works 
one  of  the  most  productive  quicksilver  mines  in  Idria,  but 
unquestionably  there  are  others  still  hidden  from  view. 
As  to  the  rather  forced  and  artificial  industry  of  Hungary 
I  have  spoken  elsewhere.  However,  with  competent  tech- 
nical advice  something  may  probably  be  made  of  it  in 
certain  lines,  such  as  pottery,  cotton  cloths,  etc.  Both  as 
to  Austria  and  Hungary,  vast  sums  of  German  capital  are 
invested.  However,  in  Hungary  this  is  of  rather  recent 
date.  Formerly  it  was  French,  Belgian,  Dutch  and  Eng- 
lish capital  that  w^as  chiefly  attracted  to  Hungary.  This 
is  true  even  as  to  Austria.  All  told  the  amount  of  native 
capital  is  but  one-fifth  that  of  Germany  for  Austria  and 
but  one-tenth  for  Hungary.  Paris  used  to  be  the  main 
money  market  for  Hungary.  Gas  companies  were  for- 
merly English  in  the  Dual  Monarchy — in  fact,  the  Brit- 
ish had  a  virtual  monopoly  in  that  line  and  in  the  metal 
industry,  at  least  the  technical  portion  of  it,  until  ousted 
by  German  persistency.  Owing  in  part  to  the  heavy 
drain  on  her  liquid  resources  made  by  Russia,  as  well  as 
to  the  faet  that  Hungary  formed  part  of  the  Dreibund, 
the  French  money  market  was  closed  to  her.  That  be- 
came very  evident  during  the  five  years  preceding  the 
war  when  Hungary  vainly  attempted  to  place  various 
loans  for  internal  improvements  in  Paris.    There  was  a 


ECONOMIC  TROUBLES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY  233 

jfinancial  boycott  declared  against  Hungary  by  France. 
Thus,  Hungary,  too,  was  forced  to  turn  to  Germany  as  a 
financial  backer.  For  Austria  the  same  state  of  things 
antedated  that  of  Hungary  by  a  full  decade  or  more. 

Both  Austria  and  Hungary  are  relatively  poor  in  cap- 
ital. In  either  country  Germany  has  very  largely  super- 
seded France  and  other  western  countries  possessed  of 
large  surplus  seeking  profitable  investment.  Still,  of 
French,  British,  Belgian,  Dutch,  American  and  other  for- 
eign capital  (non-German)  there  are  still  tremendous 
amounts  engaged  in  the  Habsburg  monarchy.  This  be- 
came statistically  ascertainable  early  in  the  war,  when  the 
western  belligerent  nations  resorted  very  largely  to  se- 
questration methods.  In  retaliating  to  some  extent  stock 
had  to  be  taken,  and  it  was  then  discovered  that  some- 
thing like  six  billions  of  Austrian  crowns  (or  normally, 
about  $1,200,000,000)  of  such  funds  coming  from  nation- 
als of  enemy  countries  were  sunk  in  Austrian  or  Hun- 
garian enterprises,  some  of  them  very  remunerative  and 
bearing  high  interest  indeed.  The  war  will,  of  course, 
change  all  this  permanently,  and  it  is  difficult  to  see  at 
this  writing  whom  the  monarchy  can  turn  to  hereafter  in 
its  absolute  need  of  capital,  if  not  to  Germany.  Belgium, 
too,  is  a  large  creditor,  especially  of  Hungary. 

The  finances  of  the  Dual  Monarchy  are  altogether  in 
Jewish  hands.  It  must  be  owned  that,  on  the  whole,  these 
bankers  and  financiers  of  Hebrew  extraction  have  evinced 
a  loyal  and  patriotic  spirit  all  through  the  war.  Though, 
of  course,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  they  could  not 
very  well  help  themselves.  While  intrinsically  quite  as 
sound,  the  whole  banking  system  of  Austria,  her  financial 
status,  rests  and  leans  on  Germany.  The  connection  is 
very  strong  and  intimate.  The  largest  Austro-Hungarian 
private  institution,  the  Wiener  Bankverein,  is  more  than 


234    AUSTRIA-HUNGABY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

half  German.  The  huge  government  concern,  the  Austro- 
Hungarian  Bank,  is  closely  modelled  after  the  Reichs- 
bank  in  Berlin,  though  it  possesses  some  special  features 
of  its  own,  due  to  its  dual  character.  Most  of  the  Aus- 
trian and  Hungarian  industrial  papers,  shares,  values, 
securities,  are  quoted  and  dealt  in,  outside  of  Vienna 
and  Budapest,  only  in  Berlin  and  Frankfort.  In  its  trade, 
its  industrial  life,  in  its  technical  development,  Austria 
is  strongly  dependent  on  Germany,  on  German  enterprise, 
German  capital,  German  science,  German  patents,  Ger- 
man example,  and  German  guidance. 

This  is  just  a  hasty  and  incomplete  synopsis  of  actual 
economic  conditions.  After  the  war  these  conditions  will 
of  necessity  be  greatly  enhanced.  It  is  not  possible  to 
say  at  present,  even  approximately,  what  Austria-Hun- 
gary's financial  status  will  be  when  peace  is  declared  once 
more,  because  such  a  forecast  depends  on  too  many  fac- 
tors at  present  not  to  be  determined. 

The  railroad  question  is  also  one  calling  for  some  ref- 
erence. Originally  nearly  all  railroads,  both  in  Austria 
and  Hungary,  were  built  with  foreign  money,  mostly  Brit- 
ish and  French.  In  an  aside  it  may  be  stated  that,  as  in 
contrast  with  Germany,  but  little  American  capital  has 
been  invested  in  the  Dual  Monarchy.  Following,  how- 
ever, the  example  set  by  Germany,  the  governments  of 
Austria  as  weU  as  of  Hungary  have  for  a  number  of  years 
past,  as  part  of  a  settled  policy,  purchased  these  foreign- 
built  roads,  out  of  hand  or  else  their  controlling  interest. 
And  this  system  has  now  proceeded  far  enough  to  make 
to-day  the  larger  number  of  railways  government-owned. 
In  Hungary  indeed  the  state  is  the  proprietor  of  all  the 
main  lines,  while  the  smaller  ones  are  still  largely  private- 
owned.  In  Hungary,  too,  the  zone  tariff  has  been  intro- 
duced, partly  as  a  measure  to  advance  industrial  develop- 


ECONOMIC  TROUBLES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY  235 

ment,  partly  for  other  obvious  reasons,  and  this  system 
has  benefited  the  population  in  several  respects.  In 
Austria,  however,  where  some  of  the  chief  lines  remain 
in  the  hands  of  private  companies,  the  zone  tariff  was  not 
found  applicable,  largely  because  of  the  mountainous 
character  of  the  country  as  a  whole,  and  the  very  vary- 
ing expense  of  maintenance,  as  well  as  because  of  the 
original  great  difference  in  the  cost  of  construction. 
State-owned  lines  have  to  compete  with  private-owned 
ones  in  Austria  at  many  points.  One  of  them,  for  in- 
stance, is  on  the  distance  from  Trieste  to  Vienna,  where 
the  Siidbahn  (which  is  largely  built  with  French  and  Britr- 
ish  capital)  must  vie  with  the  Staatsbahn. 

And  owing  in  large  measure  to  the  high  cost  of  build- 
ing in  the  first  place  (blasting  through  rock  and  moun- 
tain passes,  great  number  of  tunnels,  frequent  damage 
by  avalanche  or  mountain  streams,  etc.)  and  to  the 
equally  high  cost  of  maintaining  the  roads,  they  do  not 
pay.  If  these  roads  brought  a  clear  four  per  cent,  they 
could  square  accounts.  But  they  only  produce,  lumping 
them  together,  some  two  per  cent.,  thus  creating  quite  a 
large  annual  deficiency  in  the  national  budget.  And  it  is 
difficult  to  see  how  that  can  be  mended  in  the  future.  It  is 
similar  in  Hungary  in  this  respect,  although  the  de- 
ficiency there  is  not  so  considerable.  The  reasons  there 
are  the  low  zone  tariff,  the  insufficient  amount  of  freight, 
and  the  relatively  smaller  density  of  population. 

The  question  of  water  power  was  touched  on  be- 
fore. To  the  traveller  speeding  through  the  mountain 
scenery  of  Carniola,  Styria,  the  Carpathians,  Transylva- 
nia and  Carinthia  it  seems  difficult  to  account  for  the 
great  waste  of  economic  forces  evident  there.  Looking 
out  of  one's  car  window  at  the  churning,  rapid  head- 
waters of  the  Save,  the  Drave,  and  other  limpid  torrents, 


236    AUSTRIA-HUNGAHY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

growing  in  the  lowlands  into  mighty  rivers,  one  is  struck 
with  this  fact.  Elsewhere  it  is  the  same.  Relatively  little 
of  Austria's  and  Hungary's  abundance  of  water  power 
has  yet  been  utilised  for  industrial  purposes.  What  little 
has  been  done  is  due  to  German  technicians  from  the  em- 
pire. Doubtless  these  things  will  be  altered  before  long. 
It  may  not  astonish  the  reader  from  the  foregoing  to 
be  told  that  industry  on  the  whole  is  still  at  a  little  ad- 
vanced stage.  It  camiot  be  denied  that  much  of  the 
products  of  Austro-Hungarian  loom,  work  bench  and 
forge  is  quite  artistic  and  charming;  that  there  often  is 
displayed  fine  taste  and  originality  of  conception.  Many 
of  the  manufactures — such  as  glassware,  china  and  table- 
ware, leather  goods,  furniture  and  articles  of  domestic 
decoration,  as  well  as  the  cloths  of  Bohemia,  etc. — ^bear  a 
stamp  of  their  own  and  .are  appreciated  by  the  connois- 
seur. But  admitting  all  that,  the  fact  is  still  true  that 
the  whole  methods  in  vogue  in  its  industry  are  antiquated 
and  do  not  admit  of  those  processes  of  standardising  and 
of  rendering  the  volume  of  output  so  large  and  at  the 
same  time  the  selling  prices  so  cheap  as  to  readily  admit 
of  competing  Y>'ith  more  wide-awake  nations.  And  this, 
it  must  be  remembered,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  wages  are 
very  low  (considerably  lower  than  in  Germany,  about  as 
low  as  in  Belgium)  and  other  conditions,  such  as  abun- 
dance of  fuel,  of  ores,  of  water  power,  of  non-hampering 
legislation,  favourable  to  the  development  of  industry  on 
a  large  scale.  And  it  ought  not  to  be  omitted  in  this  list 
of  favourable  points  that  the  labour  itself,  at  least  in 
those  parts  of  the  monarchy  where  industry  is  the  pre- 
vailing occupation — such  as  the  northern  and  western 
districts  of  Bohemia,  Lower  Austria,  Moravia,  etc. — is 
to  be  easily  had  of  all  grades,  from  the  highly  intelligent, 


ECONOMIC  TROUBLES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY  237 

thoroughly  skilled  and  more  exacting  to  the  less  intel- 
ligent and  poorly  paid  type. 

Yet  for  all  that  a  thoroughly  modern  industry,  based 
on  exact  science,  so  to  speak,  one  studying  and  adjust- 
ing nicely  the  most  profitable  sources  of  supply,  measur- 
ing precisely  all  the  items  that  go  to  make  up  the  final 
product,  and  doing  it  on  a,  largo  basis  and  on  calculations 
that  are  backed  up  by  unlimited  capital,  such  an  industry 
does  not  exist  in  either  Austria  or  Hungary;  nor  is  it 
likely  to  come  into  existence  in  the  near  future.  Visiting 
some  of  the  world-famed  places  of  manufacture  in  that 
wonderfully  productive  corner  of  Bohemia  the  heart  of 
which  is  Reichenberg,  a  restricted  territory  where  smoke 
and  flame  are  breathed  with  the  air  and  the  hum  and  clat- 
ter never  ebb  away,  I  was  struck  with  the  narrow  horizon 
of  the  men  in  charge  of  things.  There  are  some  excep- 
tions, that's  true.  The  Skoda  Works  in  Pilse-n,  for  in- 
stance, where  they  turn  out  those  formidable  42-centime- 
tre howitzers  that  laid  Liege  a-nd  Antwerp  low,  is  such  an 
exception.  A  Czech,  Baron  Skoda,  is  the  brain  of  the 
concern,  and  a  number  of  able  German  engineers  are 
the  sub-brains.  There  everything  is  done  on  an  enormous 
scale — grounds  covered,  trip  hammers  of  a  hundred  tons 
apiece,  30,000  men  toiling  and  sweating  for  good  pay; 
and  capital  galore.  And  enormous  profits;  lately  one 
of  the  Krupps  became  a  partner.  But  that  is  one  of  the 
very  few  exceptions.  The  air  of  Austria  or  Hungary  is 
not  conducive  to  the  growth  of  these  modern  captains  of 
industry  that  elsewhere  have  left  their  mark. 

And  the  trend  of  those  elements  in  both  halves  of 
the  monarchy  that  have  capital  to  spare  is  not,  on  the 
whole,  in  the  direction  of  industrial  investments.  They 
do  not  like  to  speculate.  ''War  brides"  there  were,  too, 
at  the  Vienna  bourse,  with  declared  dividends  of  hun- 


238    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

dreds  per  cent.  But  the  dance  around  the  golden  calf 
there  and  elsewhere  within  the  monarchy  was  performed 
almost  exclusively  by  the  sons  of  those  we  are  told  first 
performed  it — the  sons  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob. 
By  very  few  others.  The  tendency  of  the  vast  majority 
belonging  to  the  titled  or  moneyed  classes  in  the  mon- 
archy is  towards  investment  in  land,  or  else  safe,  low 
interest-bearing  papers.  That,  too,  accounts  for  much 
of  the  success  of  the  six  war  loans  so  far  raised.  Of 
course,  with  the  prices  paid  for  agricultural  products, 
land  is  a  safe  investment.  Curiously  enough,  even  the 
Jews  of  Austria  and  Hungaiy  share,  very  many  of  them, 
this  predilection.  Any  number  of  them  have  become  the 
owners  of  estates,  and  more  and  more  land  passes  into 
their  hands.  So  much  so  that  a  great  deal  of  the  dis- 
tinctly and  violently  anti-Semitic  feeling  in  the  whole 
country  (a  feeling  which  has  become  a  declared  party 
principle  of  the  Christian  Socialist  and  other  political 
parties),  but  more  particularly  amongst  the  rural  popu- 
lation, is  directly  due  to  it.  The  list  of  great  Hebrew 
land-owners,  most  of  them  created  barons  by  the  crown, 
is  constantly  increasing.  The  head  of  the  Vienna  branch 
of  the  Rothschilds,  for  example,  owns  estates  and  farms 
covering  territory  the  size  of  a  duchy. 

The  outlook  for  a  more  prosperous  economic  condition 
in  Austria-Hungary  is,  therefore,  not  very  bright.  At 
least  not  for  the  immediate  future.  For  one  thing,  a 
great  deal  more  liquid  capital  is  required  than  there 
seems  any  near  prospect  of.  Again,  the  genius  of  its 
polyglot  population,  while  much  diversified  in  other  re- 
spects, does  not  seem  to  lie  (with  some  notable  excep- 
tions that  have  been  spoken  of  in  these  pages)  in  the 
direction  of  exceptional  material  progress.  And  lastly, 
the  great  men  that  the  monarchy  as  a  whole  has  produced 


ECONOMIC  TROUBLES  AND  THEIR  REMEDY  239 

have  achieved  triumphs  in  other  walks,  especially  in  the 
arts  and  in  music,  or  else  have  been  forced  to  look  for 
success  elsewhere,  in  other  lands  where  their  efforts 
found  more  ready  appreciation. 


CHAPTER  XV 

AID  TO  NEEDY  AND  INJURED 

Very  mixed  system — Red  Cross  organisation  kept  going  by  driblets — 
Voluntary  contributions  in  small  sums — Austria's  nobility  deiived 
from  many  strains,  yet  patriotic  in  supporting  tbe  Red  Cross — 
Some  examples — Archdukes  and  duchesses  at  the  head  as  patrons — 
Specialties — Archduchess  Marie  Theresa  taking  care  of  the  "War 
Blind" — Archduchess  Marie  Valerie,  daughter  of  the  late  Emperor, 
organising  support  of  widows  and  orphans — The  Knights  of  St. 
John — A  huge  army  of  crippled  soldiei-s — Artificial  limbs — Joseph 
Leiter  and  his  American  models — Eiselsberg,  the  surgeon  wizard  in 
Vienna — Daring  new  methods  introduced  in  his  clinics  and  sani- 
tariums— Kinoplastie  treatment — Artificial  magnetic  hands — A 
bullet  through  the  head,  parts  of  the  brains  gone,  yet  entirely  re- 
covered— American  surgeons  at  Austrian  and  Hungarian  hospitals 
— Were  made  very  welcome — In  Hungary  very  deficient  methods — 
Pension  legislation  required  in  Austria-Hungary — Some  scenes  at 
the  surgical  hospitals. 

Nothing  could  illustrate  more  strikingly  the  enormous 
difference  in  national  wealth  between  Austria-Hungary 
and  the  United  States  than  the  methods  pursued  in  either 
country  to  provide  necessary  funds  for  the  Eed  Cross, 
in  fact,  for  aiding  all  the  needy  and  injured  of  this  long 
and  terrible  war.  Here  within  a  week,  with  scarcely  any 
previous  systematised  agitation  set  afoot,  really  quite 
impromptu,  a  popular  Red  Cross  fund  far  exceeding  in 
amount  the  $100,000,000  first  called  for  was  raised.  And 
this,  too,  when  the  palpable  need  of  such  an  enormous 
sum  had  not  yet  been  felt  by  the  ''man  in  the  street," 

240 


AID  TO  NEEDY  AND  INJURED  241 

at  a  time  when  the  masses  of  the  American  people  had 
barely  a  theoretical  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  the  coun- 
try was  at  war.  The  millions  simply  poured  in  to  be 
in  readiness  against  the  days  to  come  when  they  will  be 
urgently  required,  without  any  outside  pressure,  merely 
in  obedience  to  the  instinct  urging  hearts  and  hands  to 
open  wide  for  the  relief  of  distress  in  the  future.  And 
now  look  at  Austria-Hungary.  Why,  so  far  as  I  have 
been  able  to  discover;  i.e.,  so  far  as  reports  have  been 
printed  and  published  over  there,  the  sum  of  $100,000,000 
— or  anything  near  it — has  not  been  raised  there  for  Red 
Cross  work  during  the  entire  three  years  of  war.  And 
yet  that  is  not  because  the  people  of  Austria-Hungary 
are  too  parsimonious  or  too  callous  to  give  of  their  sub- 
stance for  the  relief  of  war's  victims.  Far  from  it! 
They  are  compassionate  by  nature,  and  to  give  for  a 
good  purpose  does  not  come  hard  to  them.  Scarcely 
anywhere  else  is  the  mendicant  treated  so  tolerantly  as 
there.  To  give  alms  is  looked  upon  as  a  prime  religious 
duty.  A  tale  of  woe  at  once  draws  tears  from  their  eyes. 
No,  it  is  because  the  people  of  Austria-Hungary  (taken  in 
the  mass)  are  pitiably  poor  in  capital  when  compared 
with  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  because  the 
other  equally  well-founded  claims  of  their  country  on 
their  little  substance  was  perpetually  exhausting  them 
that  the  Red  Cross  of  Austria  (and  still  more  the  Red 
Cross  of  Hungary)  found  it  so  enormously  difficult  to 
gather  in  the  money  needed  to  keep  it  going.  And  while 
in  Hungary  at  least  the  national  parliament  was  in  ses- 
sion and  thus  enabled  to  vote,  off  and  on,  appropria- 
tions for  this  or  similar  purposes,  even  that  was  not  the 
case  in  Austria.  The  Red  Cross  of  Austria,  in  other 
words,  throughout  the  stress  of  wartime,  has  been  sup- 
ported by  none  other  than  voluntary  contributions.    And 


242    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

for  me,  a  neutral  onlooker,  it  was  a  wonderful  and  a 
touching  thing  to  see  how  it  was  done. 

First,  of  course,  were  the  nobility  of  Austria  in  con- 
tributing both  money  and  active  help.  Now,  the  Aus- 
trian nobility  is,  in  a  polyglot  country  of  numerous  races, 
one  deriving  from  many  strains.  As  their  names  alone 
would  show  even  the  uninitiated.  This  weird  nobility 
is  descended  from  almost  every  European  nationality. 
From  a  printed  call  for  aid  that  appeared  in  Vienna  to 
replenish  the  emptied  coffers  of  the  Red  Cross  (for  about 
the  tenth  time)  I  pick  the  following  representative  names 
of  members  of  the  Austrian  aristocracy :  Rohan 
(French  descent),  Bucquoy  (Belgian),  Pallavicini  (Ital- 
ian), Hoyos  and  Sylva  (Spanish),  Daffonsa  (Portugese), 
Lacy  and  Taaffe  (Irish),  Blome  (Dutch),  Razumovsky 
(Russian),  Hormuzaki  (Rumanian),  Dumba  (Macedo- 
nian), Baltazzi  (Greek),  Abrahamovicz  (Russian).  But 
there  are  many  other  names,  just  as  prominent  as  the 
above,  showing  English,  Scottish,  Welsh,  Danish,  Swed- 
ish, Flemish,  even  Turkish  and  Arabian  origin.  Well, 
this  strange  conglomerate  which,  in  the  ordinary  sense, 
certainly  is  quite  innocent  of  patriotism,  did  on  the  whole 
very  well  during  this  war  in  supplying  sinews  for  it,  both 
for  the  six  successive  w^ar  loans  and  for  the  Red  Cross 
and  other  war  charities.  In  one  way  and  another  they 
must  have  ''chipped  in"  many  millions  to  the  fund.  Aris- 
tide  Baltazzi  (famous  in  international  racing  circles)  once 
gave  a  clear  $500,000  to  one  of  the  minor  charities  spe- 
cially appealing  to  him.  The  Prince  of  Arenberg  ( Swiss, 
Dutch,  French)  came  down  with  $200,000  at  one  swoop. 
Of  the  Prince  of  Liechtenstein  it  is  said  that  he  gave  all 
told  considerably  over  a  million.  But  then  he  is  one  of 
the  wealthiest,  really  a  sovereign  in  his  own  right  (though 
the  country  he  lords  it  over  is  but  a  tiny  strip),  and 


AID  TO  NEEDY  AND  INJURED  243 

from  his  domain  he  even  furnished  Austria  with  a  quota 
of  571/^  men  for  the  army,  the  half  man  being  made  good 
by  a  whole  one  in  the  second  year  of  the  war.  So  on  the 
whole  they  have  not  done  badly,  these  Austrian  nobles 
in  whose  veins  courses  the  blood  of  many  nations. 

Then  the  imperial  house,  the  many-branched  house  of 
Habsburg.  That  did  pretty  well,  too,  in  this  respect.  It 
is  true  that  not  a  single  member  of  it,  out  of  about  170, 
gave  his  life  fighting  at  the  front,  whereas  in  Germany 
about  a  score  of  members  belonging  to  the  reigning  fam- 
ilies were  killed  in  action,  including  several  Hohenzol- 
lerns.  But  as  I  said,  in  support  of  these  war  charities  the 
Habsburgs  of  both  sexes  did  ''their  bit."  Curiously 
enough,  the  late  Emperor  Francis  Joseph  was  rather 
niggardly,  although  his  revenues  were  so  immense  that 
he  could  by  no  possibility  spend  them.  It  made  an  almost 
ludicrous  impression,  that  little  item  published  in  the 
Vienna  papers  every  month,  setting  forth  that  the  mon- 
arch had  ''again  deigned"  to  give  to  the  Red  Cross 
"10,000  cigarettes,  1,200  pounds  of  smoking  tobacco," 
etc.  Of  any  large  amount  contributed  by  him  through- 
out the  war  for  any  charitable  purpose  I  never  heard  a 
word.  But  his  son-in-law.  Archduke  Francis  Salvator, 
had  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Austrian  Red  Cross 
right  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  and  he  worked  inde- 
fatigably  at  it,  devoting  his  entire  time  and  energy  to 
the  task  of  organising,  raising  funds  and  applying  them 
in  the  wisest  manner.  It  took  hard  work,  too,  to  accom- 
plish anything  like  an  efficient  and  comprehensive  organi- 
sation. It  required  considerable  time,  for  one  thing.  I 
recall  the  deficient  and  ill-systematised  ambulance  corps 
during  the  first  three  or  four  months  of  the  war.  There 
were  not  nearly  enough  ambulances,  to  begin  with,  and 
they  were  vehicles  so  ill  devised  as  to  make  a  jolting 


244    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

ride  in  them  a  martyrdom  for  those  conveyed.  There 
was  a  great  lack  of  ambulance  trains  also,  and  of  skilled 
men  and  women  in  the  service.  On  the  trains  many  of  the 
more  seriously  injured  died  in  transit,  and  many  more 
in  the  ambulances  themselves.  The  great  task  of  estab- 
lishing efficient  first  aid  to  the  wounded  as  they  were 
brought  in  from  the  trenches  or  the  battlefield,  took  much 
pains  to  accomplish.  All  these  things  were,  especially 
in  the  forepart  of  the  war,  both  as  regards  the  Austrian 
and  Hungarian  contingents  of  the  joint  army,  in  much 
worse  shape  than  was  the  case  with  the  German  forces. 
And  as  the  number  of  available  medical  men  and  their 
assistants  was  also  much  smaller,  it  may  readily  be  un- 
derstood that  the  task  of  bringing  order  into  this  chaos 
and  of  evolving  finally  something  like  a  really  serviceable 
and  adequate  Red  Cross  staff  and  crews  was  in  truth 
a  herculean  one.  In  all  this,  no  doubt,  the  prestige  of 
Archduke  Francis  Salvator's  name  and  of  his  close  rela- 
tionship to  the  ruling  monarch  was  of  great  avail.  Fur- 
thermore, during  the  period  when  funds  were  lowest  and 
hardest  to  obtain — about  till  spring  1915 — the  Archduke 
gave  freely  from  his  own  purse,  notwithstanding  that  he 
is  by  no  means  one  of  the  wealthiest  members  of  the 
Habsburg  family.  His  wife  assisted  him  greatly  in  this. 
She,  the  daughter  of  the  late  emperor,  created,  however, 
very  soon  a  specialty  of  her  own,  one  which  appealed  with 
particular  force  to  her  woman's  heart — the  care  of  and 
aid  to  the  widows  and  orphans  of  soldiers  killed  in  ac- 
tion or  dead  from  illness  contracted  at  the  front.  To 
this  she  devoted  herself  with  infinite  tact  and  mth  a 
never-tiring  zeal  that  is  beyond  all  praise.  Of  course,  all 
she  has  been  able  to  accomplish  in  this  field  up  to  the 
present  day  could  only  be  patchwork.  Legislation  is 
urgently  needed,  both  in  Austria  and  Hungary,  to  ap- 


AID  TO  NEEDY  AND  INJUEED  245 

propriate  sums  for  partial  relief  or  for  permanent  pen- 
sions large  enough  to  meet  the  terrific  requirements  at 
least  somewhat  satisfactorily.  This  is  going  to  be  one  of 
the  greatest  post  helium  difficulties  for  Austria-Hungary. 
In  former  days,  when  the  monarchy  had  no  general  and 
compulsory  military  service  (therefore,  up  to  the  time 
of  their  last  great  war,  that  of  1866)  pensions  were  so 
small  that  they  were  scarcely  anything  better  than  alms. 
And  the  number  of  pensioners,  too,  was  never  very  great. 
But  this  present  war  has  already  made  an  enormous  army 
of  crippled  and  wholly  or  partially  disabled  men,  one 
probably  rather  exceeding  the  miUion  mark  than  below 
it.  And  to  provide  for  those  will  alone  tax  poor  Austria- 
Hungary's  capacity  to  the  utmost.  Meanwhile  Arch- 
duchess Marie  Valerie,  with  the  voluntary  aid  of  the 
whole  population,  has  done  what  was  possible.  But  even 
now  fearful  distress  prevails  among  many  of  these  poor 
widows  and  orphans,  for  the  money  available  is  wholly 
insufficient. 

For  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  Ked  Cross  work 
—at  least  successful  under  the  aggravating  circumstances 
— Archduke  Francis  Salvator  and  his  corps  of  high- 
born coadjutors  has  had  to  thank  specially  the  masses 
of  the  people.  The  same  is  true  of  Hungary,  where  the 
Archduchess  Augusta  (wife  of  the  daredevil  Archduke 
Joseph,  one  of  the  most  dashing  Hungarian  commanding 
generals)  has  greatly  exerted  herself  in  behalf  of  the 
Red  Cross.  There  the  participation  of  the  Magnates 
(members  of  the  historic  families,  the  highest  aristoc- 
racy) has  been  on  a  par  with  that  of  their  Austrian 
brethren.  On  the  whole,  however,  owing  to  the  fact  that 
Hungary  is,  in  point  of  capital,  twice  as  poor  as  Austria, 
the  Red  Cross  work  there  has  been  much  more  deficient. 

In  Austria  no  part  of  the  civilian  population  has  done 


246    AUSTRIA-HUNG AEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

more  in  the  way  of  raising  funds  for  the  Red  Cross  than 
the  school  youth.  Of  course,  those  half -grown  boys  and 
girls  had  to  be  told  first  about  the  horrors  of  war  and 
about  the  patriotic  duty  devolving  on  them  to  alleviate 
them  so  far  as  lay  in  their  power.  But  the  lesson  was 
soon  learnt,  and  to  the  observer  it  was  a  pathetic  spec- 
tacle to  see  these  thousands  upon  thousands  of  youths 
and  maidens  devoting  themselves  night  and  day  to  the 
task  of  gathering  funds,  cast-off  clothing,  shoes,  peri- 
odicals, dainties  for  the  hospitals,  all  sorts  of  commodi- 
ties gro^\Ti  scarce  yet  needed  urgently  to  prosecute  the 
war,  such  as  copper,  cotton,  leather,  nickel,  worn-out  sil- 
ver plate,  etc.,  etc.  On  certain  stated  days  these  scholars 
of  both  sexes,  picked,  of  course,  by  the  teaching  staffs  for 
their  spotless  characters  and  for  a  strong  sense  of  duty 
— the  press  having  first  made  known  the  fact — to  the 
number  of  many  thousands  and  working  under  the  super- 
vision of  responsible  and  experienced  adults  would  sally 
forth.  Some  days  the  object  was  just  the  collection  of 
cash  money.  They  would  be  furnished  with  capacious, 
locked  cash  boxes  (something  like  children's  savings 
banks)  and  with  a  supply  of  some  artificial  flowers. 
These  were  donated  by  the  manufacturers  by  the  mil- 
lion. On  one  day  it  would  be  a  scarlet  poppy,  again  a 
geranium,  a  chrysanthemum,  a  rose,  a  pink,  etc.  The 
minimum  permissible  contribution  would  be  proclaimed 
and  published,  usually  a  nickel  coin  worth  four  cents,  and 
nearly  everybody,  high  and  low,  would  give.  The  num- 
ber of  flowers  pinned  in  the  buttonliole  would  show  the 
number  of  contributions,  for  there  was  no  escaping  these 
persistent  youngsters;  they  were  met  with  everywhere, 
even  on  the  highroads  leading  to  the  city.  And  it  was 
amazing  how  large  the  sums  would  thus  grow — merely 
because  nobody  avoided  giving,  not  even  the  humblest. 


AID  TO  NEEDY  AND  INJURED  247 

Again  and  again,  to  my  certain  knowledge,  the  available 
Red  Cross  exchequer  (or  some  other  as  meritorious)  had 
run  so  low  there  was  danger  of  suspension,  when  such 
collections  as  I  described  would  come  to  the  rescue  just 
in  time.  In  Vienna  and  vicinity  once  not  less  than  600,000 
kronen  ($120,000)  was  within  two  holidays,  in  the  spring 
of  1916,  gathered  in  by  these  school  children  of  twelve 
to  sixteen  years  old.  They  did  their  work  quite  sys- 
tematically, usually  three  together,  two  girls  and  one  boy, 
or  one  girl  and  two  boys;  their  office  marked  by  a  band 
around  the  arm ;  confining  themselves  to  a  certain  speci- 
fied neighbourhood,  and  instructed  to  deliver  up  their 
boxes  in  the  presence  of  witnesses  at  a  certain  place  and 
hour.  Scarcely  any  dishonesty  was  ever  heard  of.  The 
girls  and  boys  were  proud  to  help  their  distressed  coun- 
try, and  neither  rain  nor  cold,  neither  heat  nor  sunshine 
could  stop  them  from  doing  what  they  deemed  right. 

Another  organisation  that  did  much  good,  though  in 
another  field,  were  the  Knights  of  St.  John,  a  mediaeval 
brotherhood  vowed  to  succour  the  wounded  and  sick.  Of 
these  a  large  number  are  still  existing  on  Austrian  soil 
— all  of  noble  lineage,  ''knights,"  in  fact, — with  a  master 
who  is  also  a  Habsburg.  This  order  devoted  itself  chiefly 
to  taking  care  of  wounded  officers.  They  took  them,  in 
a  couple  of  trains  luxuriously  fitted  up  and  containing 
the  best  medical  aid  and  nurses,  usually  to  some  of  the 
hospitals  owned  by  them  and  equipped  splendidly.  Some 
of  these  stand  in  the  midst  of  extensive  grounds,  parks 
or  gardens,  and  the  inmates  are  there  received  as  were 
distressed  knights  of  old,  as  brothers-in-arms,  as  fellow- 
Christians,  and  are  nursed  back  to  health  in  pleasant  sur- 
roundings or  buried  in  state  if  they  unfortunately  die. 
The  only  drawback  to  the  activity  of  this  semi-religious 
order  (and  to  which  hundreds  of  Austrian  nobles  be- 


248    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

long)  is  that  its  sphere  is  rather  limited.     But  within 
it  much  good  has  been  accomplished. 

Archduchess  Maria  Theresa,  wife  of  Archduke  Carl 
Stephen  (at  present  the  most  prominent  candidate  for  the 
throne  of  renewed  Poland),  together  with  her  husband 
made  the  care  of  perhaps  the  most  unfortunate  class  of 
war  victims,  viz.,  those  who  had  lost  their  eyesight,  her 
specialty.  The  percentage  of  injuries  leading  to  total 
blindness  is  not  as  large  in  this  war  as  many  have  sup- 
posed. And  this  despite  poison  gases,  splinters  from 
shell,  shrapnel  or  bomb ;  in  fact,  when  expressed  by  per- 
centage the  number  seems  almost  neghgible,  scarcely 
more  than  a  thousand  or  so.  But  the  fate  of  these  poor 
fellows,  at  best,  is  such  a  sad  one  that  figures  alone  do 
not  tell  the  whole  story.  Several  times  I  took  occasion  to 
look  up  the  Kriegshlinden  Anstalt  (Institution  for  the 
War  Blind)  founded  and  wholly  supported  by  the  arch- 
duchess. It  is  an  attractive  place — if  the  inmates  could 
but  see  it — situated  in  a  suburb  of  Vienna  and  set  in 
green,  with  the  pure  fresh  air  streaming  in  at  every  win- 
dow. One  of  the  leading  traits  of  the  Austrian  or  Hun- 
garian is  cheerfulness  under  all  circumstances.  Rarely 
you  meet  a  person  there  no  matter  how  humble,  no  mat- 
ter how  poverty-pinched,  that  does  not  possess  that  great 
gift — cheerfulness.  And  so  here  in  this  refuge  for  the 
blind.  It  is  well  known  that  it  is  twice  as  hard  for  a 
person  of  normal  eyesight  to  lose  it  than  to  be  born 
blind.  And  those  men  here,  almost  without  exception, 
had  also  undergone  great  physical  torture  in  the  very 
process  of  becoming  blind.  Many  had  lain,  helpless 
wrecks,  for  months  and  months  in  hospitals  before  they 
were  rehabilitated  sufficiently  to  become  inmates  of  this 
institution.  Yet  what  I  found,  in  wandering  through  the 
big  place  and  its  adjacent  workshops,  was  a  lot  of  men 


AID  TO  NEEDY  AND  INJURED  249 

apparently  content,  reconciled  to  their  sad  lot,  nay,  even 
rollicking,  gay,  smiling.  Right  in  the  first  hall  I  visited, 
that  of  the  performing  musicians,  I  met  a  strapping 
young  man  of  twenty-five  or  so,  who  looked  up  with 
his  sightless  eyes  and  listened.  He  had  just  eaten  liis 
spare  noon  meal.  A  satisfied  smile  played  about  his 
lips,  as  who  should  say: 

"Fate  cannot  harm  me, 
I  have  dined  to-day." 

And  so  they  all  were — all  trying  to  make  the  best  of  it, 
not  the  worst.  With  three  or  four  exceptions  those  men 
were  simple  souls.  At  home,  in  peace  times,  they  had 
been  peasants,  ''timber  jacks,"  rural  labourers,  small 
shopkeepers,  mechanics.  And  now  they  were  being 
taught  a  new  trade,  in  each  case  one  commensurate  with 
their  powers,  one  that  could  be  plied  without  the  use  of 
their  eyes.  The  head  patroness  of  the  institution,  the 
Archduchess  Maria  Theresa,  had  been  fortunate  in  her 
choice  of  a  superintendent.  It  was  a  man  who  had  all 
his  life  been  teaching  and  training  the  blind,  an  enthusi- 
ast of  thirty  years'  standing,  an  excellent  instructor  in 
all  that  the  blind  may  learn  and  do,  withal  a  man  of 
boundless  sympathies.  But  here  his  task  was  a  novel 
one,  quite  out  of  his  accustomed  rut.  The  more  laudable 
that  he  had  grasped  it.  Out  of  the  250,  in  round  figures, 
under  his  care  at  the  time,  he  had  successfully  adapted 
his  methods  of  reading  character  and  measuring  abili- 
ties to  those  unfortunates.  Nearly  every  one  of  them 
had  adopted  a  new  calling  and  was  on  the  road  to  com- 
plete success.  Another  couple  of  hundred  had  already 
passed  through  his  hands,  "graduated"  and  found  their 
way  back  to  practical  life,  had  usually  returned  to  their 


250    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

home  towns  or  villages,  and  were  even  now  earning  a 
living.  "For  that  is  the  worst  dread  that  hangs  over  the 
minds  of  these  men,"  said  he,  "the  dread  of  becoming 
useless,  a  burden  to  their  families  or  communities.  Once 
they  are  rid  of  this  fear,  life  once  more  is  of  interest  to 
them.  And  another  thing.  Exactly  like  cripples,  they 
hate  to  be  pitied  and  petted.  They  want  to  be  spoken  to 
and  treated  exactly  like  other  men,  and  their  deficiency, 
their  blindness,  they  wish  to  be  ignored,  not  dwelt  on." 
And  I  found  in  my  talks  with  these  poor  fellows  that  this 
expert  had  spoken  true.  They  were  sensitive,  extremely 
sensitive,  just  on  this  one  point — they  wanted  to  be  con- 
sidered normal  human  beings,  not  derelicts. 

All  sorts  of  trades  were  taught  them  in  the  workshops 
• — even  blacksmithing  and  horseshoeing.  But  in  most 
cases  the  new  calling  they  had  elected  was  of  a  different 
description.  During  their  enforced  long  abstention  from 
manual  toil  their  work-worn  hands,  formerly  rough  and 
uncouth,  had  become  tender.  Their  finger  tips  had  be- 
come sensitive.  Their  sense  of  hearing  had  quickened. 
These  new  qualities  were  now  utilised.  They  had  been 
taught  such  trades  where  delicacy  of  touch  was  of  some 
avail — such  as  carvers  and  sculptors  in  wood,  cabinet 
makers,  repairers  of  broken  furniture,  opticians,  even 
watchmakers.  And  a  score  of  them  had  been  picked, 
because  of  their  ear  for  music  and  because  they  had  al- 
ready possessed  the  rudiments  of  it,  for  performing  musi- 
cians, and  later  on  I  listened  to  a  little  concert  they  gave. 
One  of  them,  a  schoolmaster,  was  leader  of  the  band.  He 
also  did  most  of  the  training.  So  these  men  were  not 
only  cheerful — they  seemed  to  be  almost  happy.  One, 
and  one  only,  was  an  exception.  It  was  a  youth  of 
scarcely  19,  from  the  mountains  of  Styria,  not  far  from 
the  giant  peak,  the  Dachstein.    He  was  a  handsome  young 


AID  TO  NEEDY  AND  INJURED  251 

fellow,  but  looked  intensely  miserable.  He  had  not  only 
lost  both  his  eyes— only  the  hollow  sockets  remained— but 
his  former  good  spirits  as  well,  and  the  same  shell  which 
had  robbed  him  of  sight  had  also  affected  his  nervous 
system.  The  shock  had  made  him  a  prey  to  melancholia. 
He  was  unable  to  concentrate  his  mind  on  anything,  and 
he  was  to  be  transferred  next  day  to  a  sanitarium. 

Still,  as  was  intimated  before,  these  "war  blind" 
formed  but  a  very  small  minority  of  the  enormous  army 
of  war  cripples  of  every  kind.  During  the  spring  and 
summer  of  1915  it  was  pitiful  to  observe  the  great  num- 
ber of  these  incapacitated  soldiers  that  were  temporarily 
quartered  in  Vienna  and  its  eighty  odd  war  hospitals 
alone.  On  mild,  sunny  days  they  would  swarm  along  the 
whole  Ringstrasse.  Their  total  number  in  Vienna  was 
at  that  period  computed  at  about  70,000.  Many  thou- 
sands of  them  were  victims  of  the  terrible  Carpathian 
campaign,  had  frozen  one  or  more  limbs  in  the  awful 
snow-clad  mountain  passes.  I  entered  frequently  into 
conversation  with  some  of  these  men.  They  all  shud- 
dered when  they  spoke  of  the  terrors  of  that  campaign. 
And  one  overwhelmingly  great  trouble  that  they  and  the 
Austrian  as  well  as  the  Hungarian  government  faced  at 
the  period  I  speak  of  was  the  lack  of  artificial  limbs ;  not 
only  that  but  the  insufficient  ability  to  make  them.  It 
was  chiefly  due  to  one  man — and  indirectly  to  America — 
that  this  fatal  defect  was  overcome. 

One  fine  May  morning  I  noticed  two  cripples  pegging 
their  way  along  my  row  of  benches  on  the  Ringstrasse. 
The  mere  sight  of  them  was  enough  to  engage  atten- 
tion. They  were,  both  of  them,  really  but  trunks  of  men. 
For  their  legs  and  arms  were  gone.  These  had  been 
frozen  in  the  Carpathians,  and  later  amputated  in  a 
Vienna    hospital.      But    here    they   were — walking    (or 


252    AUSTRIA-HUNG AEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

rather  hopping)  along  with  the  aid  of  canes,  and  with 
arms  and  hands  able  to  seize  things  and  to  hold  on  to 
them.  Artificial  limbs  evidently.  So  I  inquired.  "Yes," 
they  said  with  dancing  eyes,  ' '  these  nice  new  limbs  were 
made  by  a  man  named  Joseph  Leiter,  right  here  in  this 
town.    And  they're  almost  as  good  as  our  old  ones." 

That  was  how  I  came  to  find  out  about  this  man  Leiter. 
I  looked  him  up.    He  had  quite  a  big  establishment,  also 
a  large  store  and  warehouse  near  the  University,  its 
clinics  and  operating  rooms,  and  but  a  stone's  throw 
from  the  huge  city  hospital,  the  Allgemeine  Krankenhaus 
on  Alser  Strasse,  which  every  American  physician  ever 
visiting  Vienna  for  purposes  of  study  knows  so  well. 
Early  in  the  war  when  amputations  became  more  and 
more  numerous,  Leiter,  who  had  hitherto  been  a  well- 
known  specialist  in  orthopedic  and  surgical  apphances, 
began  to  say  to  himself  that  the  manufacture  of  artificial 
limbs  on  a  large  scale  would  become  necessary.    For  up 
to  that  time  Austria  and  Hungary,  being  countries  where 
accidents  leading  to  loss  of  limbs  have  been  quite  rare 
and  where  consequently  there  had  been  little  demand  for 
"protheses"  (as  substitutes  for  the  natural  article,  the 
limb,  are  professionally  termed  in  Vienna),  had  mostly 
imported  them  from  the  United  States  or  Germany,  about 
80  per  cent,  from  the  United  States.    Now,  however,  there 
being  a  large  market  for  such  "protheses,"  and  imports 
from  America  having  ceased,  it  would  evidently  pay  to 
make  them  in  goodly  numbers.    And  so  Leiter,  with  an 
enterprising  spirit  truly  exceptional  in  slow-going,  con- 
servative Vienna,  turned  the  whole  resources  of  his  es- 
tablishment into  that  channel.    His  first  models  used  for 
the  purpose  were  American  made.    An  Austro-American 
named  Albert  Wiesner  who,  some  years  previous,  had 
met  with  a  frightful  accident  while  employed  in  the  con- 


AID  TO  NEEDY  AND  INJURED  253 

struction  of  a  steel  skyscraper  in  Spokane,  Wash.,  came 
to  him  for  repairs.  Wiesner  had  on  the  occasion  re- 
ferred to  got  his  feet  in  contact  with  an  electric  wire, 
and  had  had  both  of  them  burned  to  a  crisp.  In  due 
course  of  time  he  had  got  a  pair  of  first-class  artificial 
feet  strapped  to  his  ankles  and  had  learned  to  walk  for 
the  second  time  in  his  life.  Then,  when  all  was  over  and 
he  had  received  $2,500  besides  from  his  employer  as  com- 
pensation, he  had  returned  to  his  native  Vienna  where 
he  had  secured  some  light  employment.  Now  his  bogus 
feet  needed  treatment,  however,  the  ligatures  and  ball- 
bearing tendons  being  out  of  order.  Leiter  fitted  liim  up 
again,  and  from  the  original  he  turned  out  a  few  counter- 
feits. These  were  gladly  purchased  for  some  crippled 
soldiers  at  a  nearby  war  hospital,  and  thus  the  founda- 
tion was  laid  for  a  new  line  of  business  that  grew  by 
leaps  and  bounds  until  it  became  about  ten  times  as  large 
as  had  been  the  old  Leiter  plant.  Leiter  soon  found  imi- 
tators and  competitors,  and  the  supply  became  ample  for 
the  extensive  demand. 

In  surgery  Vienna  has  held  for  long  a  prominent  place, 
a  fact  which  was  known  to  the  world  long  before  Prof. 
Lorenz  and  his  wonderful  cure  of  little  Lolita  Armour. 
During  this  war  Austrian  surgery  has  again  scored  many 
triumphs,  although  in  the  nature  of  things  these  have 
not  been  much  spoken  of  in  the  other  belligerent  coun- 
tries. I  can  speak,  however,  with  some  knowledge  on  the 
subject,  at  least  to  the  extent  of  mentioning  some  mar- 
vellous cases.  Dr.  Eastman,  one  of  the  American  doctors 
sent  to  Austria  by  the  war  department  at  Washington 
to  study  new  methods  and  perfect  themselves  in  them 
(and  let  me  say,  in  an  aside,  that  all  the  American  physi- 
cians thus  sent  were  cordially  welcomed  and  agree  in 
describing  the  treatment  accorded  them  throughout  the 


254    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

long  war  as  kind  and  appreciative),  saw  some  of  tliese 
wonderful  things,  wonderful  at  least  from  the  scientific 
viewpoint.    I  do  not  go  into  details  here,  as  these  would 
only  be  of  interest  to  professional  men.    But  out  of  the 
plethora  of  material  at  hand,  let  me  at  least  briefly  men- 
tion a  few  instances.    These  are  taken  from  the  records  of 
the  Eiselsberg  clinic  in  Vienna.    Professor  von  Eisels- 
berg  (who  was  created  a  baron  by  the  late  emperor)  is 
a  surgical  wizard  whose  daring  new  methods  and  novel 
adaptations  of  old  ones  to  new  needs  would  be  universally 
commented  on  to-day  if  these  were  days  of  peace.    He 
and  Prof.  Klingenberg  jointly  perfected  the  structure  of 
magnetic  artificial  hands.    The  principle  is  simplicity  it- 
self.    A  ''pot"  mag-net,  enclosed  in  a  steel  cylinder,  is 
afifixed  to  the  cuffs  of  an  artificial  hand.    By  connecting 
this  cylinder  with  an  electric  current  (and  one  of  very 
small  power  will  do),  a  strong  magnetising  of  the  whole 
apparatus  is  effected.    The  current  can  be  interrupted  at 
will  by  motions  of  the  foot.    The  magnetic  force  thus  de- 
veloped is  sufficient  for  the  enclosed  magnet  to  attach  it- 
self to  and  strongly  retain  all  sorts  of  iron  and  steel 
objects.    A  crippled  soldier  (or  anybody  else  having  the 
apparatus  attached)  can  without  further  preparation  and 
without  any  great  expenditure  of  muscular  power,  do  all 
sorts  of  work  necessary  in  the  iron  and  steel  industry, 
such  as  filing,  turning,  punching,  stamping,  etc.    By  some 
additional  manipulation  other  work,  even  of  the  most 
complicated  and  delicate  description,  may  also  be  per- 
formed for  any  length  of  time.     Of  even  greater  prac- 
tical importance  is  the  kinoplastic  treatment  invented 
by  Eiselsberg.    This  consists  in  the  artificial  hands  and 
feet  being  joined  to  the  severed  tendons  and  made  almost 
as  useful  as  the  original  members.     This  method  lends 
an  incredible  degree  of  suppleness  to  the  artificial  fin- 


AID  TO  NEEDY  AND  INJURED  255 

gers  and  toes.  Lastly  I  must  moiition  a  case  whicli  seemed 
to  me,  humanly  speaking,  almost  miraculous,  yet  which  I 
was  permitted  to  observe.  It  was  the  case  of  a  young 
Greek  lieutenant,  severely  wounded  in  the  Balkan  war. 
The  young  man,  23,  of  fine  physique,  was  the  son  of  a 
very  wealthy  Greek  merchant  of  Patras  and  Cairo,  and 
during  an  engagement  a  Turkish  bullet  entered  his  fore- 
head between  the  eyes  and  left  it  at  the  nape  of  the  neck. 
In  traversing  the  whole  of  the  cerebellum  the  projectile 
carried  considerable  brain  matter  along,  leaving  a  ragged 
hole  large  enough  to  insert  a  thumb.  After  preliminary, 
rather  unsatisfactory,  treatment  the  young  man  under  the 
guidance  of  his  father  was  sent  to  Eiselsberg.  At  that 
time  his  general  vitality  had  suffered;  his  power  of 
speech  was  affected,  so  that  he  spoke  brokenly  and  often 
would  stop,  unable  to  remember.  At  the  Eiselsberg  clinic 
the  young  Greek  recovered  fully  within  six  weeks,  so 
that  every  abnormal  symptom  wholly  and  permanently 
disappeared.  According  to  all  the  old-time  tenets  of 
surgery  he  had  no  business  to  live  at  all,  let  alone  to 
recover.    Yet  here  he  was,  alive  and  well. 

And  yet  another  case  I  must  briefly  refer  to.  It  was 
that  of  a  young  Austrian  officer  who  had  fought  with  dis- 
tinction through  the  whole  war,  being  decorated  twice  and 
promoted  over  the  heads  of  others.  In  his  private  capac- 
ity he  was  a  civil  engineer  who  had  earned  a  reputation 
for  his  work.  On  the  Italian  front  one  day  a  big  shell 
burst  in  his  immediate  vicinity,  and  on  rocky  soil.  Frag- 
ments of  rock  tore  away  the  entire  right  half  of  his  face, 
bones  and  all.  He  was  a  horrible  sight  when  taken,  as  a 
last  resort,  to  the  Eiselsberg  clinic.  Within  six  months 
the  lacking  part  of  his  face  had  been  supplied  anew  and 
presented  an  appearance  not  much  different  from  what 
it  once  was.    To  accomplish  this  there  had  been  done  some 


256    AUSTRIA-HUNG AEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

surreal  work  probably  unequalled  before.  This  con- 
sisted not  only  in  the  transplanting  of  living  tissue— skin 
and  flesh  both— but  of  lifeless  bone  which  had  been 
grafted  upon  the  ends  of  living  bone  and  had  been  per- 
fectly integrated.  In  short,  the  missing  half  of  the  face 
had  been  rebuilt,  inch  by  inch  and  bit  by  bit,  and  so  com- 
pletely amalgamated  with  the  pre-existing  parts  as  to 
form  a  new  and  organic  whole.  Portions  of  the  new  skin 
and  flesh  came  from  animals  (chickens,  etc.)  and  yet 
looks  to-day  to  all  intents  and  purposes  thoroughly  hu- 
man. Among  the  wonders  this  war  has  wrought  let  us 
not  forget  phenomenal  advance  in  daring,  original  sur- 
gery. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

EEFUGE   CAMPS   AND   BARRACK   TOWN'S 

The  largest  of  these  barrack  towns  in  southern  Styria — Sixty 
thousand  Ladiners  given  a  temporary  home — Fled  before  the  ad- 
vancing Italians — Some  facts  about  this  curious  people — Remnant 
of  the  aboriginal  Celtic  population  in  the  days  of  Ca?sar — Strong 
resemblance  with  Welsh  and  Breton  people — Lovers  of  music, 
poetry  and  fairy  tales — A  concert  with  a  quartette  in  it — Their 
tongue  and  their  literature — Walks  about  the  town — 800,000  fugi- 
tives from  Galicia — How  they  were  disposed  of — Camps  in  Bohemia 
and  Moravia — Some  250,000  in  Vienna — Ruling  passion  still  strong 
• — Food  speculators  and  how  punished — War  fortunes  made  on 
credit — War  ministry  in  Vienna  and  Budapest  involved — Scandals 
laid  bare — A  cunning  swindle — Fugitive  camps  for  penniless 
Hebrews  from  Galicia — Schools  in  operation — Trades  taught — 
Munitions  plants  started  and  rim  entirely  with  fugitive  labour — 
Slow  repatriation — Some  pertinent  stories. 

Up  to  the  present  Austria-Hungary  has  had  to  take 
care,  during  longer  or  shorter  periods  of  this  war,  of 
about  one  million  and  a  half  of  her  civilian  population 
that  had  either  been  evacuated  or  fled  before  the  advance 
of  the  enemy.  By  far  the  greater  half  of  this  number 
came  from  Galicia  and  Bukovina.  There  the  Russians 
were  the  invaders.  From  Galicia,  a  province  bordering 
on  Russian  territory  for  a  distance  of  altogether  about 
300  miles,  at  one  particular  point  of  this  long  war  about 
800,000  men,  women  and  children  had  sought  safety  in 
flight;  that  is,  about  one-tenth  of  the  total  population. 
Most  of  those  800,000  had  had  to  use  so  much  haste  that 

257 


258    AUSTRIA-HUNGAHY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

very  little  of  their  property  had  been  brought  along,  and 
in  thousands  and  thousands  of  cases  these  unfortunates 
had  nothing  but  what  they  wore  on  their  backs  when  at 
last  they  reached  safety.  Li  many,  many  instances  the 
circumstances  were  as  pitiable  and  pathetic  as  possible. 
There  were  dainty  ladies  in  silk  or  velvet,  in  evening  at- 
tire, with  nothing  but  a  priceless  sable  stole  or  fur  mantle 
thrown  over  it.  They  had  been  at  a  sociable  party  given 
by  one  of  their  hospitable  neighbours  in  Eastern  Galicia, 
not  far  from  the  border.  At  table,  suddenly  there  had 
come  the  cry:  "The  Cossacks!"  Everybody  had  risen 
and  run  to  the  window  whence  a  wide  view  was  to  be 
obtained.  "Look,  Spiridion!  Look,  Mamushka!  The 
village  is  on  fire."  By  the  glare  of  the  flames  a  band  of 
Cossacks  could  be  seen,  a  mile  or  so  off,  urging  their 
horses  on  a  run.  The  lady,  nay,  everybody,  was  panic- 
stricken.  Just  as  she  was,  with  her  thin  patent  leather 
shoes,  in  her  bare  neck,  she  ran  out  into  the  snow-covered 
road,  grasping  her  little  boy  by  the  hand  and  praying 
aloud  to  be  saved,  begging  and  imploring  Heaven  to 
grant  her  a  merciful  death  rather  than  fall  into  the  hands 
of  these  terrible  Cossacks — "They  are  Kubans,  too,  the 
wildest  and  most  bloodthirsty  of  them  all,"  so  she  had 
heard  a  maid  at  her  host's  house  shrieking.  On,  on,  on 
— stumbling,  falling  on  the  slippery,  rough  road  that  led, 
five  miles  away,  to  the  nearest  station  where  it  was  hoped 
to  find  an  emergency  train.  And  thus,  bleeding,  dis- 
hevelled, sleepless,  wrought  up  to  an  insane  pitch  of  ex- 
citement, this  particular  lady.  Countess  Zamoyska,  the 
owner  of  a  princely  estate  and  large  revenues,  had  at  last 
reached  Vienna  after  36  hours  of  hysterical  flight.  Her 
husband  an  officer  in  the  Austrian  army,  nobody  to  pro- 
tect her,  to  cling  to,  but  her  little  Spiridion  of  five  years 
old.    And  when  she  at  last  registered  at  a  Vienna  hotel 


REFUGE  CAMPS  AND  BARRACK  TOWNS  259 

the  only  thing  she  had  to  assure  them  that  she  was  no 
adventuress,  no  beggar,  was  the  string  of  pearls  she  had 
worn  on  her  neck  at  the  party — oh,  how  long  ago — and 
this  she  fished  out  with  trembling  fingers  from  between 
the  seams  of  her  fur  wrap  where  she  had  hidden  it. 

Of  such  stories  I  heard  a  number  those  gloomy  days  of 
late  fall  and  early  winter  of  1914.  I  remember  a  ''Fugi- 
tives' Coffee  House."  Wealthy  Polish  ladies  had  quickly 
fitted  it  up  and  opened  it,  right  in  the  busy  heart  of 
Vienna.  It  was  not  run  on  business  principles.  Quite 
the  reverse.  A  committee  of  ladies,  headed  by  three  of 
the  most  exclusive  aristocrats,  had  been  formed.  Jointly 
they  had  undertaken  this  and  jointly,  too,  they  man- 
aged it.  One  noon  when  I  was  there  I  noticed  an  old 
gentleman  in  one  comer,  gazing  blankly,  despairingly  at 
the  motley  crowd  around  him.  "Who  is  he?"  I  asked 
the  committee  lady  in  charge  just  that  hour.  "That  is 
Professor  Al  .  .  .  i,  who  holds  the  chair  of  modem  phi- 
losophy at  the  University  of  Lemberg,"  she  whispered 
back  to  me.  The  poor  old  man,  with  his  venerable  beard 
of  grey,  had  not  a  penny  to  buy  some  food,  and  he  was 
ashamed  to  beg.  So  the  committee  lady  had  to  help  him 
out.  Many,  many  cases  as  pitiable  as  that,  and  more  so. 
A  number  of  these  fugitives  reached  Vienna  only  to  die — 
the  horrors  of  their  flight,  the  hardships,  the  inclement 
weather,  snow  and  cold  and  wet,  the  want  of  shelter  and 
rest,  the  lack  of  nourishment  and  restoratives — all  had 
combined  to  kill  by  inches  some  of  the  feeble  and  delicate. 
At  first,  too,  there  were  amongst  these  multitudes  and 
multitudes  of  half -crazed  people,  all  mixed  and  mingled  in 
inextricable  confusion,  persons  of  large  means,  even  mil- 
lionaires, yet  for  the  moment  veritable  beggars.  Flight 
had  been  so  sudden  and  unexpected  they  had  not  been  able 
to  prepare  for  it.    Now  they  were  part  of  a  semi-demented 


260    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

herd  of  fellow-fugitives,  in  a  strange  town.  These  cases, 
of  course,  did  not  take  long  to  adjust  themselves.  Capital 
is  mighty  everywhere,  but  only  in  normal  times.  Once 
the  banks  in  Vienna  knew  whom  they  had  to  deal  with, 
once  makers  of  checks  had  been  identified,  had  produced 
proof  of  some  portion  of  their  wealth  at  least  being  out 
of  the  reach  of  Russian  invaders,  safe  doors  swung  open 
readily  enough  and  means  were  available.  But  there 
were  many  unusual  cases  notwithstanding.  Cases  of  such 
persons  whose  social  standing  in  their  Polish  homes  in 
Galicia  had  never  been  doubted ;  yet  here  in  these  novel 
surroundings  they  met  with  rebuffs.  Yet,  more  or  less 
the  greater  bulk  of  these  Galician  fugitives  were  taken 
care  of.  The  government  for  a  long,  long  while  did 
scarcely  anything  but  furnish  free  transportation  and 
advice.  There  were  no  funds  available  for  the  purpose 
until  later.  It  was  all  a  jumble.  There  was  no  organisa- 
tion to  help  these  poor  people — to  feed  the  hungry  and 
give  them  shelter.  Later  on  it  was  different.  But  after 
all,  it  was  the  municipal  government  of  Vienna — one  in 
which  the  Christian  Socialist  party,  so-called,  is  domi- 
nant and  which,  indeed,  laid  the  stress  on  the  Christian 
on  this  and  similar  subsequent  occasions — which  had  to 
do  most  of  the  good  work.  Within  a  short  while  the  num- 
ber of  these  Galician  fugitives  in  Vienna  alone  crept 
up  to  a  quarter  of  a  million  and  kept  at  that  altitude  for 
months  and  months.  The  Mayor  of  the  city,  an  able 
and  large-hearted  man,  aided  by  a  few  of  his  aldermen 
(Gemeinderat  is  the  title  of  the  office  there)  exerted  him- 
self tremendously.  Voluntary  contributions  poured  in 
from  all  classes.  One  of  the  most  sympathetic  traits 
of  the  Viennese  is  a  compassion  that  knows  no  bounds 
and  no  distinctions.  And  in  this  instance  they  proved  it 
again.    As  the  great  majority  of  the  fugitive  Galicians 


EEFUGE  CAMPS  AND  BARRACK  TOWNS  261 

were  Hebrews,  the  wealthy  Jews  of  Vienna  dug  down 
deep  in  their  pockets  and  hauled  out  altogether,  in  the 
course  of  the  next  twelvemonth,  a  matter  of  about  ten  to 
twelve  million  Kronen  (a  Krone,  about  twenty  cents), 
merely  to  help  support  this  vast  host.  But  the  city, 
after  all,  did  the  lion's  share.  That  wonderfully  flex- 
ible city  charter  of  Vienna — so  flexible  that  were  it  not 
for  uniformly  honest  and  sensible  management  there 
might  be  stolen  or  squandered  a  king's  ransom  every 
week — enables  these  men  to  handle  the  relief  funds,  to 
make  appropriations  of  millions  from  the  city  treasury 
when  the  need  for  that  arose,  to  keep  under  strict  control 
in  every  way  this  vast  army  of  250,000  strangers,  most 
of  them  speaking  nothing  but  their  Yiddish  jargon  (un- 
intelligible to  a  real  Teuton)  or  Polish;  and  to  provide 
for  them  all,  to  rule  the  unruly  or  lazy  or  corrupt,  to 
provide  remunerative  employment  for  those  that  re- 
quired it.  In  a  word,  Vienna  and  the  Jewry  of  Vienna 
did  well  in  such  an  unprecedented  emergency.  A  big  al- 
dermanic  council  for  a  year  and  more  did  almost  noth- 
ing but  look  after  these  strangers  from  Galicia,  their 
wives  and  babes,  their  sick  and  needy  and  dying. 

And  as  it  was  with  the  fugitives  from  Galicia,  so  also 
it  was  with  those  from  Bukovina.  "With  the  Slovaks  and 
Ruthenians  settled  in  the  northeastern  counties — or 
Comitats — of  Hungary,  that  were  driven  out  by  the  long 
Carpathian  campaign  the  Russians  waged  till  June,  1915, 
Austria  and  Vienna  had  little  to  do.  These  were  taken 
care  of  by  the  Hungarian  government  and  found  refuge 
in  Budapest  at  first  and  later  on  in  barrack  camps  spe- 
cially constructed.  But  Bukovina  forms  part  of  Austria 
and  this  from  the  start  was  one  of  the  chief  objective 
points  of  the  Russian  plan  of  campaign  as  devised  by 
their    commander-in-chief,    the    Grand    Duke    Nicholas 


262    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

Nicholayevitch.  The  capital  city  of  Bukovina,  Czerno- 
witz,  one  of  the  most  attractive  and  charming  cities  of 
the  monarchy,  was  three  times  taken  and  twice  released 
by  the  Russians.  At  this  writing,  as  one  of  the  fruits 
of  the  Brusiloff  drive  in  the  summer  of  1916,  it  is  again 
held  by  the  Russians.  The  Russians  made  hostages  of 
a  number  of  the  leading  citizens  there  and  sent  them  to 
Siberia,  finally  exchanging  them  for  prominent  Russians 
seized  by  the  Austrians  during  their  own  big  offensive 
in  1915.  But  some  50,000  or  60,000  Bukovinians  fled  be- 
fore the  Russian  advance,  and  these  again  found  their 
way  mostly  to  Vienna.  Among  them  were  the  professors 
and  lecturers  of  the  Czernowitz  University  and  nearly  all 
the  rest  of  the  "intelligentsia"  (members  of  the  learned 
professions)  of  that  small  province.  They  and  most  of 
the  others  were  in  about  as  sad  a  plight  as  the  Galicians, 
and  again  private  charity  and  contributions  did  the  most. 

However,  more  about  these  Galicians  later.  Just  now 
I  should  like  to  tell  the  reader  something  about  a  curious 
little  race  that  is  also  among  the  victims  of  this  relent- 
less war.  I  am  speaking  of  the  Ladiners.  Some  60,000 
of  these  have  been,  and  still  are,  dwelling  in  a  sheltered 
valley  of  South  Styria,  a  short  distance  from  Marburg, 
ever  since  the  summer  of  1915.  They  were  evacuated  or 
fled  before  the  Italian  advance,  and  these  60,000  were 
for  the  larger  part  residents  of  the  city  of  Gorz  (or 
Gorizia),  with  additions  from  the  nearby  districts  of 
Istria  and  Gradiska. 

These  Ladiners  are  a  very  interesting  people.  Having 
heard  of  their  existence  before  and  finding  myself  in 
that  neighbourhood,  during  a  short  tour  I  made  of  the 
Dolomite  range  and  valleys  in  the  summer  of  1913,  I 
took  time  to  make  myself  acquainted  with  some  of  the 
Ladiner  communities  and  villages  and  to  delve  a  little 


REFUGE  CAMPS  AND  BARRACK  TOWNS  263 

into  their  past.  It  is  a  hoary  past,  going  back  in  a 
straight,  unbroken  line  to  the  days  of  CjEsar  and  even 
beyond,  to  those  of  Marius  and  Cinna.  For  these  Ladi- 
ners  were  the  prehistoric  settlers  of  parts  of  Northern 
Italy,  of  the  Trentino,  of  Gorz  and  Gradiska,  and  of  the 
canton  of  Grisons,  Switzerland.  The  largest  number  of 
them  dwell  in  enclosures  east  of  Trent,  of  Rovereto,  of 
Flims.  On  Austrian  soil  there  are  altogether  about  half 
a  million  of  them.  Their  tongue,  a  peculiar  mixture  of 
ancient  Latin  and  of  more  ancient  Celtic,  has  in  the  main 
preserved  its  stock  of  original  Celtic  words  for  familiar 
phrases  and  for  objects  of  everyday  use,  while  the  struc- 
ture of  its  grammar  resembles  more  the  Latin.  It  is  by 
no  means  Italian.  In  fact,  its  case  betrays  a  close  anal- 
ogy with  the  amalgamation  of  two  tongues  in  modern 
English.  To  the  ear,  however,  the  Celtic  origin  is  quite 
unmistakeable.  It  has  retained  the  harsh  Celtic  gut- 
tural sound,  almost  precisely  like  that  which  has  sur- 
vived in  the  Welsh.  Indeed,  it  is  not  only  in  the  language 
that  a  striking  resemblance  between  these  Ladiners  of 
Austria  and  the  Welsh  of  England  and  the  Bretons  of 
France  obtrudes  itself.  For  this  resemblance  is  just  as 
noticeable  in  the  physical  appearance  and  in  the  peculiar 
racial  gifts.  No  wonder.  For  from  all  accounts  avail- 
able it  would  seem  that  the  Ladiners  have  remained 
throughout  twenty  centuries  and  more  almost  pure  Celts. 
In  looks  they  are  of  medium  height,  rather  slender  and 
sinewy;  black,  slightly  wavy  hair  predominates,  but  the 
skin  is  often  dazzling  fair  and  eyes  of  deep  violet 
are  even  more  common  among  them  than  amongst  the 
lasses  of  the  West  of  Ireland.  Their  love  of  and  talent 
for  music  and  singing  is  as  great  as  that  of  the  Welsh. 
Their  tongue,  rhyming  naturally  and  lending  itself  to 
poetry  by  its  great  wealth  of  picturesque  metaphors,  is 


264    AUSTRIA-HUNG AEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

not,  as  I  pointed  out,  a  mere  dialect.  It  is  a  language,  a 
literary  medium.  During  the  period  of  the  Reformation, 
in  the  16th  century,  many  Ladiners,  it  seems,  turned 
Protestant.  And  from  that  time  dates  a  translation  of 
the  Bible,  done,  it  is  stated,  by  an  old  village  school- 
master who  has  remained  nameless.  In  the  public  library 
of  Bozen,  somewhat  north  of  the  Tyrolese  settlements 
of  the  Ladiners,  there  is  kept  a  collection  of  folk  songs 
and  short  ditties  in  the  popular  vein — both  with  love  for 
their  theme  and  in  other  strain,  written  in  the  Ladiner 
tongue.  A  few  newspapers,  too,  are  published  in  it.  But 
what  those  fragments  of  Ladiner  literature  that  have 
come  down  to  our  time  are  choicest  in  are  the  folklore 
and  fairy  tales.  These  betray,  if  further  proof  were 
wanted,  the  Celtic  strain  of  this  small  people  most  un- 
questionably. They  abound  in  fairies  (called  fdi),  in 
goblins  and  in  mischievous  or  beneficent  supernatural 
beings,  just  as  do  the  Irish  tales  of  the  same  description. 
Their  spirit  and  humour,  too,  closely  correspond.  To 
cap  it  all,  though,  these  people  have  the  typical  Celtic 
temperament.  They  are  easily  roused  to  joy  or  wrath. 
They  are  very  variable  in  their  mood ;  proud  and  sensi- 
tive ;  rather  aggressive,  but  easily  appeased.  Historical 
and  local  traditions  are  scant.  But  it  would  seem  that 
the  Ladiners  have  in  the  main  always  been  an  agricul- 
tural people,  and  that  they  have  seldom  mingled  their 
blood  with  that  of  the  surrounding  Italian  population. 
The  latter,  in  fact,  they  hate.  Nevertheless,  the  Irredenta 
movement,  fostered  and  systematised  from  Italy,  has 
made  some  progress  among  them.  This  results  plainly 
from  the  fact  that  during  the  last  fifty  years,  i.e.,  since 
the  establishment  of  a  national  Italian  kingdom,  or  regno, 
the  number  of  Ladiners  professing  their  o^vn  nationality 
has  declined  to  the  tune  of  nearly  twenty-five  per  cent. 


REFUGE  CAMPS  AND  BARRACK  TOWNS  265 

The  effects  of  this  Italianising  propaganda,  however,  has 
been  confined  to  the  cities  and  towns.  It  had  no  effect 
in  the  rural  districts  where  the  majority  of  the  Ladiners 
are  settled. 

Now  this  small  Ladiner  people  has  been  caught  by  this 
war  between  the  nether  and  the  upp^r  millstone.  When 
war  was  declared  by  Italy,  in  May,  1915,  the  front  be- 
tween the  new  belligerents  ran  from  the  first,  so  far  as 
Gorz  and  Istria  are  concerned,  almost  to  their  very  house- 
doors.  From  the  opening  of  hostilities  the  heavy  guns  of 
the  Italians  dropped  their  visiting  cards  right  in  the 
streets  of  Gorz.  A  little  while  later  trenches  had  been 
advanced  so  that  a  rain  of  bullets  would  often  sweep 
through  its  main  streets.  An  Austrian  officer  whom  I 
visited  in  a  Vienna  hospital  afterwards  had  been  hit 
while  seated  at  the  window  of  the  Cafe  Schmeisser  in 
Gorz  with  his  coffee  and  newspaper.  At  last,  the  pretty, 
wholly  Southern  city  being  largely  demolished,  the  Aus- 
trian commander,  Boroevic,  considered  further  steady 
losses  for  the  sake  of  a  heap  of  ruins  no  longer  worth 
while,  and  abandoned  Gorz  to  the  Italians.  Now  the 
Italian  officers  sit  at  the  same  window  in  the  Cafe  and 
run  the  same  chances,  as  guns  and  bullets  are  as  near, 
only  from  another  direction. 

Long  before  this  happened,  though,  in  fact,  right  after 
the  campaign  started,  the  Austrian  government  had  be- 
gun to  make  ready  the  huge  barrack  town  for  the  fugi- 
tive Ladiners  from  Gorz,  and  last  year  I  paid  a  visit  to 
this  haven  of  refuge  and  made  extensive  acquaintance 
with  the  dwellers  therein.  It  is  a  lovely  spot,  this  val- 
ley. A  mountain  stream  and  two  brooks  tumbling  down 
the  steep  sides  encompassing  the  town  furnish  plenty  of 
water  for  all  purposes.  The  water  is  clear  as  crystal 
and  cool  and  fresh  the  year  through.     It  and  the  soft, 


266    AUSTRIA-HUNGAKY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

balmy  air  which  is  due  to  the  encircling  mountains  that 
exclude  the  northern  blasts  are  largely  responsible  for 
the  low  mortality — about  3.5  per  1,000— although  the  pre- 
ventive sanitary  arrangements  and  the  medical  labora- 
tory supervised  by  a  well-known  Vienna  expert  in  charge 
of  health  conditions,  and  life  in  the  open  may  also  have 
something  to  do  with  it.  For  as  a  matter  of  simple  truth 
I  ought  to  mention  that  the  comprehensive  hygienic  ar- 
rangements and  the  enforcement  of  a  few  precautionary 
rules  have  probably  done  much  to  keep  all  epidemics 
away  from  this  favoured  spot.  Each  one  of  the  inmates 
of  the  barrack  town  has  been  vaccinated,  and  preventive 
treatment  against  spotted  typhoid,  dysentery,  cholera  and 
other  war  scourges  has  been  rigorously  observed.  But 
the  mild,  pleasant  climate  of  the  place,  the  absence  of 
rough  winds  which  these  children  of  a  softer  climate  are 
particularly  sensitive  to,  and  the  pine  woods  surrounding 
them  on  all  sides,  doubtless  did  as  much. 

When  they  ''moved  in,"  so  to  speak,  in  the  early  fall 
of  1915  they  found  their  new  home  ready  to  receive 
them.  It  is  a  complete  town,  complete  in  everything. 
There  are  two  churches,  a  general  hospital,  an  asylum 
for  nurslings  and  their  mothers,  a  lying-in-hospital,  six 
schools,  two  enormous  kitchens  (one  for  married,  one 
for  unmarried  people),  a  score  or  more  of  dormitories, 
hundreds  of  smaller  cottages,  a  training  school  for 
nurses,  domestic  science,  another  one  where  mechanical 
trades  are  learnt,  immense  workshops,  and  lastly,  a 
"movie"  theatre,  a  vaudeville  stage,  a  huge  dance  hall, 
and  a  singing  academy.  The  last  named  especially 
claimed  my  attention,  knowing  the  great  talent  for  musitt 
of  these  Ladiner  folk.  So  I  steered  for  that  first.  I 
found  it  under  the  direction  of  the  late  choirmaster  and 
organist  of  the  cathedral  at  Gorz,  Faidutti  by  name,  a 


REFUGE  CAMPS  AND  BARRACK  TOWNS  267 

gray-haired  man  full  of  youthful  enthusiasm.  He  is  well- 
known  indeed  not  only  in  his  special  sphere  but  also  as 
a  composer  of  church  music.  As  a  teacher  of  vocalism 
he  has  taught  several  of  his  pupils  enough  to  enable  them 
later  on  to  find  operatic  engagements  both  in  their  native 
Austria  and  in  Italy  and  Germany. 

In  honour  of  the  stranger  the  venerable  choirmaster 
called  upon  one  of  his  quartettes  and  had  them  sing  a 
few  of  their  choicest  Ladiner  folk  airs.  I  was  dumb- 
founded. Those  halfgrown  lads  and  lasses  sang  better 
than  many  a  high-priced  star;  with  voices  thoroughly 
schooled,  words  well  enunciated,  sound  swelling  and  ebb- 
ing— regular  hel  canto  of  the  kind  so  seldom  heard  now- 
adays. But  of  course  their  themes  did  also  much  to 
delight  the  listener.  For  those  folk  airs,  which  were 
sentimental  and  sweet  and  old-fashioned,  pathetic  and 
stirring,  jubilant  and  reckless,  then  teasing  and  petulant 
by  turns,  ran  up  and  down  the  whole  scale  of  human 
emotions,  drew  tears,  smiles  and  laughter.  One  tune 
had  such  a  haunting  quality  that  I  had  the  text  trans- 
lated for  me.  For  they  were  all  sung  in  the  vernacular. 
Words  and  music  alike  had  anonymous  authors.  This 
particular  one  treated  of  the  old.  old  pain  at  parting: 

My  Marietta,  shall  we  meet  agahi? 

(And  the  world  so  wide,  and  the  roads  so  far) 

Ai,  shall  we  meet  again? 

And  the  refrain :  ^ '  If  not  in  this  then  in  another  world. ' ' 
It  was  such  a  rare  treat,  this  concert,  that  it  did  not 
astonish  me  when  I  heard  later  on  that  Maestro  Faidutti 
from  his  chorus  of  1,200  had  picked  a  choice  dozen  of 
voices  and  with  the  consent  of  the  government,  under- 
took with  them  a  short  concert  tour.     They  went  to 


268    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

Graz,  to  Vienna,  to  Breslau  and  Berlin.  And  right  in 
the  midst  of  this  bloody  war,  in  the  heyday  of  the  ''bread 
card,"  the  reception  these  youthful  Ladiners  with  their 
leader  found  was  overpowering.  Their  artistic  success 
was  inunense,  and  as  to  their  financial  one,  that  was  at 
least  great  enough  to  benefit  substantially  the  whole 
colony  of  60,000  for  some  time  to  come.  For  it  is  true 
that  money  was  scarce  in  this  barrack  town,  spick  and 
span  and  neat  and  clean  as  it  was  in  all  respects.  The 
Austrian  government  could  not  afford  to  feed  those 
60,000  on  delicacies.  The  fare  was  rude  and  none  too 
ample,  and  the  universal  lack  of  cash  under  which  all  the 
dwellers  more  or  less  suffered  was  but  scantily  amended 
by  the  sale  of  their  artistic  or  industrial  products.  As 
to  the  artistic  products,  the  cliief  ones  for  which  a  good 
market  was  found  were  the  work  of  the  w^ood  sculptors 
and  carvers.  These  comprised,  however,  not  only  statu- 
ettes of  saints  and  shrines  for  churches  and  wayside 
stations — ^blue-coated  Josephs  and  white-winged  angels, 
etc. — but  also  lay  carvings.  I  confess  that  the  latter 
pleased  me  most.  There  was  a  little  shop  in  this  curious 
town  of  refugees  where  some  of  them  were  exposed  for 
sale.  And  there  again  one  might  study  the  wide  range 
of  sympathies  of  this  little  Ladiner  people.  Their  artis- 
tic conceptions  embraced  such  things,  for  instance,  as 
"Boys  at  Play;"  "Fighting  Street  Urchins;"  "Barking 
Dog  at  Gambol;"  "Jealousy,"  etc.  The  last  two  more 
especially  were  evidently  taken  from  life.  "Jealousy" 
showed  two  village  suitors  bemauling  each  other,  while 
the  beauty  herself  stood  aside  smiling  to  herself.  The 
"Barking  Dog"  had  hold  of  the  shirt  tail  of  a  frightened 
little  boy,  tugging  and  tearing  for  dear  life.  The  tools 
which  had  been  used  in  this  work  I  saw — primitive  en- 
tirely.    The  material  was  a  tough,  close-grained  wood. 


REFUGE  CAMPS  AND  BARRACK  TOWNS  269 

perhaps  boxwood.  Fifty  cents  in  American  money  was 
the  guerdon  the  artist  received  for  a  carving  of  this  kind. 
It  required  two  days  to  do  it.  Then  I  made  a  call  at  the 
various  schools.  In  one  of  them,  a  girls'  school,  they 
were  just  getting  lessons  in  German.  It  sounded  comi- 
cal. The  tongue  of  these  people  has  retained  the  rough 
Celtic  guttural  sound,  and  when  these  pupils  struck  such 
words,  for  instance,  as  "Kirche,"  church,  they  made  it: 
''KerrrkhJcha";  but  they  did  their  best  with  the  strange 
idiom.  Another  visit  was  to  the  lying-in  hospital,  where 
I  found  an  abundance  of  war  babies — ^bed  after  bed,  side 
by  side,  row  upon  row,  several  hundreds  of  them,  with 
their  more  or  less  comfortable  and  complacent  mammas. 
Both  offspring  and  mothers  were  treated  exceptionally 
well.  They  received  all  the  intelligent,  kindly  care  the 
well-to-do  classes  can  afford.  For  babies  have  risen 
considerably  in  value  during  this  war  that  has  destroyed 
so  much  adult  life. 

The  fugitives  from  Galicia  were  of  a  wholly  different 
type  from  these  Ladiners  in  their  idyllic  surroundings. 
The  250,000  of  them  that  had  fled  to  Vienna  in  the  early 
part  of  the  war,  contained  also  many  thousands  of  penni- 
less Jews  that  had  escaped  the  whip  and  the  sword  of 
the  Cossacks  by  headlong  flight,  leaving  all  their  little 
possessions  behind.  In  many  instances  only  parts  of 
families  had  managed  to  get  away  in  time,  while  other 
members  of  them  had  been  massacred  by  the  Russians 
or  else  held  captive  during  the  period  of  occupation. 
Again,  in  the  hurly-burly  of  flight  families  had  been  sep- 
arated, and  the  newspapers  in  Vienna  for  many  months 
were  full  of  advertisements  in  which  Schmuhl  Feigen- 
baum  was  demanding  to  know  the  whereabouts  of  Elka, 
his  wife,  or  the  son  inquired  the  present  residence  of 
his  father,  etc.    Frequently  there  was  no  response.  Death 


270    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

had  come  in  one  shape  or  other.  In  the  Leopoldstadt 
quarter  of  Vienna,  where  the  humbler  Jews  mostly  con- 
gregate, there  was  suddenly  an  endless  concourse  of  new, 
strange  figures — men  in  long  gabardines,  tiny  circular 
caps  of  silk  or  velvet  on  their  heads,  and  corkscrew  curls 
meandering  down  the  sides  of  the  face ;  women  with  wigs 
and  ancient  finery,  blooming  young  Esthers  and  Susan- 
nahs ambling  along  with  downcast  eyes.  Along  the  quays 
of  the  Danube  Canal  there  was  an  endless  procession  of 
these — a  new  edition  of  Hebrew  fugitives  mourning  by 
the  waters.  Rabbis  in  every  costume  and  of  every  degree 
of  holiness  were  scattered  amongst  them  all. 

But  the  Hebrew  pilgrim  in  this  vale  of  tears  bears  aye 
the  reputation  of  being  irrepressible.  From  among  this 
conglomerate  collection  of  distressed  humanity  there 
soon  came  forth  the  men  of  business.  It  was  instructive 
and  interesting  to  watch  their  methods.  As  against  the 
non-Jewish  world  they  were  a  unit.  They  aided  and 
supported  each  other.  They  clubbed  their  means  of  ready 
money  together  and  jointly  not  only  tried  but  accom- 
plished neat  strokes  of  business,  netting  them  perhaps 
$10,000,  $20,000,  $50,000,  and  then  dividing  it  pro  rata. 
Some  of  them,  ay,  many,  did  big  business  on  no  capital 
at  all,  just  on  credit.  I  recall  a  few  sample  cases  of 
that  description.  Mendel  Weixelbaum  and  Abraham 
Schweissfuss  vouched  for  each  other  at  the  bank.  Neither 
had  a  penny,  but  their  cousin  in  Vienna,  Ike  Meisel,  had 
some  credit  and  a  few  dollars,  and  Ike  vouched  for  them. 
So  they  there  bought  on  credit  three  carloads  of  soap, 
raisins,  apples,  lubricating  oil,  and  sold  it  the  same  day 
with  a  joint  profit  of  about  $4,500.  Now  they  had  money 
all  three  of  them.  Within  a  fortnight  they  were  num- 
bered among  the  "war  usurers."  A  bunch  of  ten  of 
these  penniless  capitalists  made  such  clever  use  of  their 


EEFUGE  CAMPS  AND  BARRACK  TOWNS  271 

eloquence,  sagacity  and  knowledge  of  the  produce  market 
that,  in  October,  1914,  they  cornered  all  the  lentils  in 
Vienna  and  made  a  fortune  out  of  the  deal.  Within  the 
winter  of  1914-15  these  fugitive  gentry  from  Galicia  cor- 
nered some  of  the  foodstuffs  most  in  demand — such  as 
macaroni,  dried  peas  and  beans.  These  completely  dis- 
appeared from  view.  But  meanwhile  these  legumes, 
after  being  withdrawn  from  the  open  market,  went  from 
hand  to  hand,  netting  big  profits  at  each  deal  and  turning 
a  score  of  the  dealers  into  "war  millionaires."  Specu- 
lation in  indispensable  commodities  became  the  specialty 
of  the  Jewish  refugees  from  Galicia  that  had  found  a 
haven  in  Vienna.  Of  course,  they  did  not  have  it  all 
their  own  way.  The  Austrian  government  began  to  in- 
terfere, but  against  this  pressure  there  were  always  in- 
vented new^  and  successful  dodges  and  ruses.  The  courts 
took  a  hand  and  sent  a  score  or  more  to  jail.  But  that 
did  not  stop  it.  The  thing  paid  too  well.  Neither  did 
the  imposition  of  heavy  fines  stop  it.  There  was,  for 
example,  this  case:  A  wholesale  dealer  in  wine,  with 
branches  in  Vienna  and  Prague,  by  contract  secured  from 
a  number  of  vintners  in  the  Tyrol  some  90,000  gallons  of 
Tyrolese  wines,  both  red  and  white,  at  an  average  price 
of  K.  4.80  (or  about  $1.00)  per  gallon.  With  the  aid  of 
some  of  the  financial  geniuses  recently  arrived  from 
Galicia  he  sold  the  wine  at  K.  13.60  per  gallon,  netting 
300  per  cent,  of  profit.  The  court  deciding  under  the 
war  decrees  that  this  constituted  usury,  not  legitimate 
speculation,  fined  the  defendants  K.  10,000.  But  that 
left  them  still  a  net  profit  of  about  $160,000.  It  was  simi- 
lar in  most  cases.  But  not  this  alone.  Speculation  in 
this  field  induced  speculation  in  other  fields.  And  the 
enormous  and  easy  profits  bred  corruption  all  around. 
This  corruption  by  and  by  penetrated  even  the  govern- 


272    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

ment  offices,  in  Austria  as  well  as  in  Hungary.  A  number 
of  highly  sensational  scandals  grew  out  of  this.  Again 
our  refugees  from  Galicia  were  in  all  this  kneedeep.  The 
banks,  even  some  of  the  largest,  became  involved  and 
began  to  share  in  the  gigantic  proceeds.  Thus,  the  All- 
gemeine  Verkehrsbank  (a  big  institution  having  connec- 
tions with  high  finance)  went  into  some  of  the  schemes, 
notably  of  furnishing  war  material  to  the  Ministry  of 
War  in  Vienna  as  well  as  in  Budapest.  The  president 
of  it  finally  was  sentenced  to  nine  months'  jail  and  a  fine 
of  K.  200,000  for  illegal  and  fraudulent  practices  and 
misrepresentations.  The  secretary  of  war  for  both 
countries,  General  von  Krobatin,  became  a  victim  to  this 
orgy  of  swindles,  and  had  to  resign.  In  Budapest  some 
ten  altogether,  amongst  them  two  members  of  parlia- 
ment, three  section  chiefs  in  the  ministry  of  interior,  and 
several  high  officers  in  the  national  army,  were  convicted 
of  being  bribed  in  the  matter  of  furnishing  shoes,  horses, 
etc.,  for  war  purposes,  and  were  disgraced.  The  cancer 
of  corruption  ate  deep  into  official  life.  Although  the 
main  foodstuffs  in  Austria  between  October  1914  and 
August  1916  rose  to  three  times  their  original  prices, 
speculation  in  a  number  of  specialties  often  drove  prices 
up  to  twentyfold,  even  fiftyf old  what  they  had  been.  But 
it  was  not  alone  in  food  speculation  that  corruption  was 
practised  in  high  places. 

One  of  the  most  widespread  swindles  was,  for  instance, 
connected  with  the  summoning  of  men  to  the  army.  As 
the  war  progressed  and  losses  through  bullet  or  illness  at 
the  front  became  more  and  more  frightful  and  these 
losses  even  became  exaggerated  by  going  from  mouth  to 
mouth,  disinclination  to  serve  became  more  general.  This 
was  most  the  case  in  Bohemia.  And  one  day  two  sly 
young  Jews,  Galician  refugees,  were  caught  at  a  game 


REFUGE  CAMPS  AND  BAREACK  TOWNS  273 

which  had  cost  the  army  no  less  than  about  400  soldiers. 
The  game  was  simplicity  itself,  and  probably  the  more 
successful  on  that  account.  One  of  the  two  had  formed 
a  connection  in  that  department  of  the  ministry  of  war 
charged  with  the  calling  in  and  choosing  of  new  men  for 
the  army.  From  his  official  friend  he  procured  all  the 
detailed  information  he  needed,  as  names,  residence,  age, 
etc.,  etc.,  of  such  of  the  men  summoned  who  were  able 
and  willing  to  pay  a  goodly  sum  to  escape  military  duty. 
And  on  the  day  when  the  ''Musterung"  (examination)  of 
the  recruits  in  that  particular  district  took  place,  the 
second  Jew,  representing  the  man  really  called,  came 
forth  with  all  the  information  needed  and  the  ''papers" 
of  the  real  party.  Invariably  this  man  was  rejected  as 
unfit  for  military  duty.  And  this  was  not  wonderful, 
either.  For  he,  the  locum  tenens,  had  a  number  of  seri- 
ous physical  defects.  He  next  collected  his  ^'fee,"  rang- 
ing between  $400  and  $2,000,  according  to  the  financial 
means  of  the  young  man  lucky  enough  to  escape.  The 
two  young  Hebrews  and  their  confederate  in  the  war  de- 
partment had  reaped  a  golden  harvest  totaling  about 
$150,000,  as  appeared  subsequently  during  court  proceed- 
ings. They  are  now  serving,  all  three  of  them,  but  not  at 
the  front.  This  case,  however,  was  but  one  of  many. 
Ever  since  the  Russians  first  swept  over  Galicia,  and  a 
great  hegira  took  place  of  all  the  foot-loose  and  timid,  or 
else  specially  enterprising  Israelites,  the  courts  all  over 
the  monarchy  have  been  kept  busy  with  investigating  and 
judging  crimes  and  misdemeanours  for  which  these  fugi- 
tives stood  sponsors.  Such  a  fine  oportunity  of  mak- 
ing hay  while  the  sun  shines  will  probably  never 
come  in  their  way  again.  And  so  they  are  making  the 
most  of  it.  Of  the  so-called  ''war  millionaires,"  or 
"war  sharks" — ^men  suddenly  grown  rich  out  of  war 


274    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

spoils — this  contingent  of  Galician  Jews  lias  furnished  a 
ver}^  large  number.  They  became  familiar  figures  at  the 
Imperial  opera  house,  where  they  and  their  ladies,  clad 
in  priceless  furs  and  rubies  and  diamonds,  held  grandly 
forth  in  the  boxes.  The  jewelry  shops  in  Vienna,  after 
being  afraid  for  a  short  time  of  having  to  close  up, 
never  have  done  such  a  rushing,  profitable  business  as 
since  the  fall  of  1914. 

However,  it  would  be  going  entirely  too  far  to  create 
the  impression  that  all  the  800,000  fugitives  from  Galicia, 
or  even  the  larger  part  of  them,  were  persons  of  that 
calibre.  That  is  by  no  means  true.  Many  thousands  of 
poor  Jews  fled  because  death  and  torture  were  staring 
them  in  the  face  by  remaining.  The  lot  of  those  Jews 
either  unable  to  flee  or  else  unwilling  to  leave  their  pos- 
sessions to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  Russians,  was  not 
a  happy  one,  as  the  facts  became  generally  known  after 
the  return  of  the  Austrian  authorities  late  in  1915.  And 
there  were  many  thousands  of  the  higher-class  Poles 
likewise  among  the  refugees.  The  latter,  of  course,  could 
pass  their  exile  in  more  or  less  comfort  in  Vienna,  in 
Cracow,  or  elsewhere.  Many  of  them  went  to  Switzer- 
land. The  great  bulk  of  the  Galician  fugitives,  however, 
were  without  means  and  dependent  on  government  sup- 
port. Those  who  did  not  go  to  Vienna  for  the  purpose 
of  asking  aid,  were  mostly  concentrated  in  a  few  large 
barrack  camps  that  came  to  be  erected  in  suitable  locali- 
ties in  Moravia  and  Bohemia.  These  camps  were  in 
most  respects  similar  to  the  one  described  by  me  above. 
But  in  addition  to  operating  there  all  sorts  of  industrial 
and  manufacturing  shops,  such  as  chair,  furniture,  can- 
ning, hardware,  etc.,  the  Austrian  government  erected 
also  munitions  and  arms  works  in  which  such  of  the  re- 
fugees as  were  physically  able  could  find  employment  at 


EEFUGE  CAMPS  AND  BARRACK  TOWNS  275 

fair  wages.  The  youth  of  both  sexes  in  these  camps 
have,  besides,  had  an  opportunity  of  acquiring  a  decent 
schooling.  In  the  schools  established  there  were  taught 
the  ordinary  branches  of  a  common  school  education :  a 
fair  knowledge  of  German,  the  three  R's,  some  history 
and  geography.  The  pupils  taught  were  nearly  all  from 
the  towns  of  Eastern  Galicia.  In  that  district  there  are 
towns  of  10,000  or  20,000  made  up  75  or  80  per  cent,  of 
Jews,  and  amongst  them  often  there  would  scarcely  be 
any  knowing  anything  but  Hebrew  wisdom — Yiddish  and 
the  Talmud.  For  that  class  of  the  population  their  tem- 
porary flight  and  residence  in  another  province  where 
they  have  learned  some  useful  book  knowledge  and  a 
trade  besides,  will  later  in  many  cases  prove  a  veritable 
blessing. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

VISITS   TO    WAR   PRISONERS 

More  than  a  million  cared  for  by  Austria-Hungary— A  day  with  the 
Don  Cossacks— At  the  camp  near  Bruek,  Austria— Singing  with 
the  accompaniment  of  the  balalaika— Home !  the  word  thrills  even 
these  fierce  wai-riors- Seeing  the  big  camp  at  Gyor,  Hungai-y- A 
race  riot  between  Russians  and  Servians— "Brothers !"  he  said,  and 
then  he  fell  pierced  by  a  bullet— The  great  plot  for  liberation  of 
Russians  at  Eger,  Bohemia— Miscarried  because  of  betrayal— Gen- 
eral guiding  principles — Hygiene  and  epidemics — Food  question 
caused  most  trouble — Employment  of  prisoners  by  civilians — Aid- 
ing in  the  hai-vest  season— Glee  clubs— Film  theatres— Russians 
toiling  in  the  vineyards  in  Austria  and  near  Tokay,  Hungary- 
Low  mortality  figures — Muscovites  amazed  at  the  "hmnped  soil"  in 
mountainous  Austria— Building  and  repairing  highroads  and  rail- 
ways neaf  the  Italian  front — A  meeting  between  Italian  and  Rus- 
sian prisoners— Officers  had  to  be  kept  apart  from  men— Hard 
labour  in  the  Bohemian  collieries — Homicidal  record — At  the  de- 
tention camp  for  civilians — Number  of  them  rather  small — Red 
Cross  work — A  report  disallowed  by  the  late  Czar. 

Serge'i  Ilyitch  sat  strumining  his  balalaika  in  a 
dreamy,  listless  manner,  and  the  sturdy  Cossack  tower- 
ing by  his  side  sang  in  a  velvet  voice  a  home  ditty  of  as 
many  stanzas  (evidently  some  of  his  own  improvising) 
as  he  had  inches.  The  burden  of  his  lay  ran  about  in  this 
wise: 

Brothers,  far  by  the  Don  is  my  izba, 
My  izba  in  the  shade  of  the  linden  tree. 
(Hum,  hum,  hur-r-r-r!) 
276 


VISITS  TO  WAR  PRISONERS  277 

And  the  blossoms  they  spread  sweet  odour, 
Odour  that  spreads  far,  far  away. 
(Hum,  hum,  hur-r-r-r!) 

Ah,  ye  brothers,  when  shall  we  see  again 
Our  humble  izba,  our  village,  our  linden  tree? 
When  shall  we  hear  again  the  bees  buzzing  ? 
When,  oh  when  shall  we  meet  our  dear  ones? 
(Hum,  hum,  hur-r-r-r!    Hur-r-r-r,  twang!) 

The  birches  white  by  the  rambling  brook 

(Hum,  hum,  hur-r-r-r!) 
Green  and  silvery  fair. 

(Hum,  hum,  hur-r-r-r!) 
I  see  it  all  before  my  eyes, 
Ai,  a'i,  the  world  is  wide. 

(Hum,  hum,  hur-r-r-r!) 

Why  did  our  Little  Father  the  Czar 
Send  us  to  this  cruel,  cruel  war  1 

(Hur-r-r-r!  Hur-r-r-r!  Hur-r-r-r!) 
Why  did  he  tell  us :  Slay  and  burn  ? 
What  matters  it  to  us  at  all  ? 

(Hum,  hum,  hur-r-r-r!) 

Thus  Prokop  Vlasoff,  the  tall  Cossack,  in  his  rich  bari- 
tone, and  as  he  sang  the  tears  were  slowly  coursing 
adown  his  grimy  face.  Home !  The  word  thrilled  them* 
all,  and  at  the  end  of  every  stanza  the  throng  of  giants, 
uncouth,  unkempt,  fierce  of  mien,  set  up  a  howl  in  chorus, 
much  like  the  yelping  of  prairie  wolves,  dismal  to  listen 
to.  There  might  have  been  some  fifty  in  this  crowd. 
All  Cossacks  from  the  Don  River,  among  the  wildest  and 
most  untamed.  Yet  at  this  moment  the  primeval  in- 
stinct, the  longing  for  home  and  kindred,  made  them  in- 
tensely human. 

These  Cossacks  belonged  to  a  sotnia  which  had  been 
captured  near  Radautz,  Bukovina,  on  a  foraging  expedi- 


278    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

tion  and  broiiglit  into  this  camp  but  the  day  before.  It 
was  near  Brack,  on  the  Leitha,  close  to  the  Hungarian 
border,  where  altogether  some  30,000  Russian  captives 
were  confined.  "With  the  approval  of  Count  Berchtold, 
at  that  time  the  foreign  minister  of  Austria-Hungary,  I 
formed  part  of  an  investigating  committee,  made  up  of 
correspondents  from  neutral  countries,  inspecting  a  num- 
ber of  war  prisoners'  camps.  It  was  a  very  thorough 
and  painstaking  inspection,  too.  Nothing  was  hidden. 
There  were  among  us  men  from  Spanish-speaking  coun- 
tries, as  well  as  from  English,  French  and  German  speak- 
ing ones,  and  there  were  some  from  the  frozen  Scandi- 
navian north ;  and  by  word  of  mouth  the  prisoners  were 
allowed  to  tell  us  their  grievances,  whatever  they  were. 
There  were  many  such.  Those  about  food  were  by  far 
the  most  frequent — about  insufficient  food,  unaccustomed 
food,  food  not  cooked  to  their  liking;  about  alleged 
spoiled  or  tainted  food,  about  unfair  distribution  of  it; 
about  favouritism  shown,  about  thefts  of  food,  etc.,  etc. 
They  were  interminable,  these  stories  about  food  from 
the  poor  fellows.  All  these  complaints  that  permitted 
instant  putting  to  the  proof  were  looked  into  on  the  spot. 
And  in  nearly  every  instance  it  was  found  that  these 
complaints  were  based  on  misunderstanding,  or  on  un- 
reasonable demands,  or  else  that  the  circumstances  of  the 
case  did  not  permit  a  change.  But  then,  who  could  blame 
the  poor  fellows !  In  war  times,  and  more  especially  in 
all  prison  camps,  the  stomach  is  indeed  found  the  most 
important  organ  of  the  body. 

Poor  fellows!  I  said.  Of  course,  poor  fellows.  All 
prisoners  of  war  are  that,  under  any  and  all  circum- 
stances. But  many  of  these  poor  fellows,  when  free,  had 
been  cut-throats,  rufSans,  especially  the  Cossacks.  It 
appears  that  by  one  of  the  many  curious  blunders  of 


VISITS  TO  WAR  PRISONERS  279 

which  this  endless  war  has  hatched  a  legion  or  so,  in 
some  western  countries  the  Cossacks  are  regarded  as 
among  the  elite  of  the  Muscovite  army.  The  reverse  is 
true.  Russian  soldiers  of  the  line  scorn  and  abhor  them. 
When  confronted  with  evidence  of  special  ruthlessness, 
of  horrible  cruelties  committed  by  Russian  troops,  these 
men  of  the  line  or  of  some  guard  regiment  will  almost  in- 
variably make  reply:  ''The  work  of  the  Cossacks.  What 
else  can  you  expect!"  For  the  Cossacks  have  their  own 
peculiar  standing.  Since  the  beginning  of  this  mighty 
struggle  between  East  and  West  some  two  millions  of 
Cossacks  have  been  mobilised — hailing  from  the  Don  and 
Dnieper,  the  Kuban,  the  Dniester,  from  Siberia  and  the 
Ural  settlements.  All  of  them  must  supply  their  own 
horses  and  equipment  and  receive  no  pay  whatever  from 
the  master  in  Petrograd.  They  must  live  on  plunder 
and  robbery,  on  torture  and  murder,  on  rapine  and  arson. 
And  they  do.  When  this  sotnia  of  them  was  brought 
in  on  the  day  previous  a  curious  spectacle  could  be  wit- 
nessed. 

The  men  were  surrounded  by  a  cordon  of  Austrian, 
soldiers,  and  on  an  extensive  grassplat  the  Cossacks  were 
made  to  disgorge — one  by  one.  It  was  all  piled  up  in 
the  centre  in  a  huge  heap.  Such  a  collection !  Not  even 
Uncle  Simpson  of  the  Three  Golden  Balls  at  any  time 
had  such  a  variety  of  valuables  under  his  roof.  From 
their  long  kaftans,  from  their  high  boots,  from  pockets 
specially  constructed  to  hide  it,  from  their  kalpaks,  from 
everywhere,  they  dug  out  the  booty  and  threw  it  on  the 
heap ;  gold  and  silver  watches  and  chains,  money  in  coin, 
jewelry,  clocks,  gilt  or  solid  silver  vessels,  plate,  goblets, 
costly  furs,  etc.,  etc.  Many  objects  glittering,  but  of  lit- 
tle intrinsic  value.  As  each  man  disrobed  and  gave  up  he 
made  a  wry  face.    For  he  relinquished  the  fruits  of  this 


280    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

war,  his  wages,  his  gains  that  he  had  built  air  castles  on 
against  the  days  peace  should  reign  once  more.  He  had 
come  into  the  ring  a  man  of  great  bulk,  baggy,  bloated. 
He  came  out  slim  and  gaunt  like  a  greyhound. 

That  is  one  of  the  peculiar  features  of  the  war  with 
Russia — the  immense  number  of  nationalities,  races, 
creeds,  all  masquerading  under  the  name  of  '' Russians." 
Think  of  it — 128  varieties!  Among  them  many  practi- 
cally unknown,  like  tlie  Bashkirs  and  Mordvinians,  the 
Ossetians  and  Kalmucks.  At  the  huge  camp  of  There- 
sienstadt,  Bohemia,  I  saw  specimens  of  nearly  every  one 
of  these  128  tribes — ^many  slant-eyed  and  Mongolian  in 
features,  many  pagan,  many  absolutely  without  a  ves- 
tige of  civilisation. 

Withal,  in  captivity  they  behave  fairly  well  for  the 
most  part.  Each  section  of  the  camp,  each  tent  and  bar- 
rack, each  hut  or  log  house  they  are  housed  in  there  is 
a  sort  of  elder,  a  prisfav,  put  at  the  head,  held  responsi- 
ble for  the  men  under  him  and  therefore  invested  with 
a  certain  disciplinary^  power.  Theft  is  the  most  common 
vice  among  them.  They  pilfer  one  and  all,  if  but  a  crust 
of  bread  or  a  morsel  of  sausage.  For  the  Russian  is  vo- 
racious. His  appetite  is  unappeasable.  If  he  can  he 
will  devour  three  big  loaves  of  bread  a  day.  All  his 
earnings  go  for  food.  Bread  is  his  favourite  food ;  that 
and  sfcliee  (cabbage  soup)  and  grits  (called:  borsht) 
made  into  a  thick  pap  or  mush.    He  is  after  solids. 

Yes,  pity  apart,  it  is  the  stomach  that  the  captive  is 
most  troubled  with  in  this  war.  Above  all,  if  he  is  in 
the  hands  of  the  semi-starving  nations  making  up  the  Cen- 
tral Powers.  To  repeated  objections  on  the  score  of  in- 
sufficient food  (which  would  be  a  clear  violation  of  in- 
ternational agreements)  which  Russia  particularly  pre- 
ferred through  the  medium  of  neutral  governments,  Aus- 


VISITS  TO  WAE  PRISONERS  281 

tria-Hungary  made  reply  that  inasmuch  as  England  and 
France,  Russia's  allies,  were  themselves  responsible  for 
the  hunger  blockade  used  against  the  Central  Powers  as 
a  measure  of  war,  it  would  be  manifestly  impossible,  and 
unfair  to  her  own  population  to  boot,  were  she  to  feed 
her  enemy  prisoners  more  liberally.  Proof  was  fur- 
nished repeatedly  that  the  rations  dealt  out  to  Russian 
prisoners  were  equal  in  bulk  to  those  which  the  hard- 
labouring  classes  of  Austria-Hungary  themselves  re- 
ceived. But  Russia  always  professed  dissatisfaction  with 
these  attempts  at  justification  and  went  on  spreading  the 
news  that  Austria-Hungary  deliberately  starved  her 
prisoners  of  war. 

At  the  camp  in  Bruck  and  subsequently  at  those  oth- 
ers I  visited  (some  of  them  several  times),  at  Laden- 
burg,  Austria,  Gyor,  Hungary,  Theresienstadt  and  Eger, 
Bohemia,  and  at  the  small  detention  camp  near  Wels, 
Upper  Austria,  I  invariably  found  that  indeed  the  food 
was  scant  for  able-bodied  men,  but  that  it  was  equal  in 
bulk  to  what  her  own  working  civilians  had,  and  that  as 
far  as  quality  and  cooking  went  no  fault  could  reasonably 
be  found.  Indeed,  as  to  the  latter  item,  great  indulgence 
was  shown.  Prisoners  were  told  off  in  groups;  nearly 
always  some  trusted  man  amongst  them  was  held  respon- 
sible for  a  fair  division ;  and  the  cooking  was  left  to  the 
prisoners  themselves.  Thus  it  was  that  the  Russians  got 
regularly  their  simple  favourite  dishes — their  cabbage 
soup  and  thick  grits,  their  peas  and  beans  made  into  a 
flabby  mush,  and  their  coarse  rye  bread ;  the  Italian  pris- 
oners their  polenta  (a  stiff  maize  pap),  spaghetti  and 
tomato  sauce,  even  long  after  most  Austrians  themselves 
were  unable  to  procure  such  delicacies  in  the  open  mar- 
ket; and  the  Servians  got  their  paritza  and  the  Ruma^ 
nians  their  mamaliga. 


282     AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

Everywliere  I  found  that  tlie  chief  sin  committed  by 
the  war  prisoners  was  pilfering  food  from  their  fellows. 
At  the  camp  in  Theresienstadt  I  happened  to  witness  the 
arrival  of  a  new  big  batch  of  prisoners — about  6,000  of 
them.    These  were  apportioned  among  the  existing  divi- 
sions.   The  latter  ran  in  alphabetical  order.    I  was  pres- 
ent when  the  inmates  of  one  little  barrack  greeted  about 
a  dozen  of  the  new  arrivals.    The  pristav  went  up  to  the 
leader  of  this  dozen,  a  sergeant,  made  a  sweeping  motion 
with  his  hand  saluting  him,  and  then  kissed  him  on  the 
forehead  and  twice  on   each  cheek,   saying  the  while: 
''Little  brother,  thou  art  welcome.    Thou  art  here  among 
friends,  among  brothers.    We  are  all  orthodox  Russians. 
We  mean  to  be  good  to  thee.    Art  thou  hungry  ?    Thirsty  ? 
Speak  the   truth.     Don't  be  bashful."     And  the   new 
brother  then  did  some  kissing  on  his  own  part  and  was 
at  once  made  to  feel  at  home;  food  was  placed  before 
him ;  he  was  asked  where  he  had  been  taken  prisoner  and 
under  what  circumstances  and  how  many  wdth  him;  how 
the  war  was  progressing  and  if  there  was  not  yet  any 
sign  of  approaching  peace;  and  what  news  he  brought 
with  him  from  the  outside  world.    It  was  quite  touching; 
these  men  were  evidently  all  good  fellows ;  simple-mind- 
ed, full  of  affection  for  the  new  man  who  was,  however,  a 
villainous-looking  lout.    Next  day  I  heard  that  this  same 
sergeant,  the  new  arrival,  one  Trifon  Arkhanoff,  had  dur- 
ing the  night  stolen  a  whole  loaf  off  his  comrades,  and 
got  a  good  beating  for  it. 

One  of  the  Austrian  ofiQcers  in  command  of  this  camp, 
Major  Beck,  told  me  astounding  things  about  the  voracity 
of  his  Russian  prisoners.  All  their  earnings  by  extra  la- 
bour, all  they  could  beg  or  steal,  went  for  more  food. 
Five  pounds  of  bread  one  of  them  had  eaten  at  one  sit- 
ting—soggy, half-baked  bread   (made  by  the  Russians 


VISITS  TO  WAR  PRISONERS  283 

themselves) ;  tliat  be  Lad  kept  at  it — munching,  munch- 
ing; had  filled  himself  until  he  had  vomited,  and  then 
had  begun  anew.  He  claimed  tliat  the  natural  appetite  of 
an  average  Russian  was  fully  twice  as  big  as  that  of  an 
Austrian  soldier.  The  Italians,  on  the  other  hand,  are 
much  more  abstemious  in  their  diet,  as  are  all  Latins. 
And  within  their  ranks  thefts  of  food  are  not  nearly  so 
common.  That  is  in  a  measure  also  true  of  the  Servians, 
whereas  the  Rumanians  are  nearly  as  bad  as  their  neigh- 
bours, the  Russians.  "With  both  Russians  and  Ruma- 
nians (of  course  this  refers  to  the  peasant  class  only)  it 
is  a  sign  of  appeased  hunger,  of  satisfaction  Avith  the 
meal  and  with  the  hospitality  shown,  to  grunt  very  au- 
dibly. 

When  I  visited  the  big  Hungarian  camp  at  Gyor  where 
some  65,000  Russians  and  Servians  were  confined,  a  race 
riot  had  just  been  suppressed  with  some  loss  of  life. 
Whatever  it  may  be  outside,  certainly  these  two,  Rus- 
sians and  Servians,  did  not  harmonise  when  confined 
together.  Observing  them  it  does  not  seem  astonishing, 
for  they  differ  greatly.  The  Russian  remains  under  all 
circumstances  placid  and  of  easy  good  nature,  whereas 
the  Servian  is  morose,  haughty  and  aggressive.  For  all 
they  are  both  Slavs,  nobody  would  think  them  of  the 
same  race — the  Servian  with  his  hawk-like  face,  aquiline 
nose,  ebon  hair  and  flashing,  sombre  eyes;  the  Russian 
with  his  high  cheekbones,  bulbous  nose,  blue  eyes  and 
hair  of  straw  colour.  So  these  two  races  had  agreed  to 
disagree  from  their  first  hour  in  camp.  Several  times 
there  had  been  bloody  feuds  fought  out.  And  on  the  day 
in  question  news  had  come  in  of  a  new  Russian  disaster 
at  the  front,  and  this  had  led  a  Servian  stump  speaker 
and  pothouse  politician  (of  whom  there  are  many  hail- 
ing from  the  shores  of  the  Drina  and  Save)  to  make  some 


284    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

very  slighting  remarks  about  Muscovite  valour  and 
fighting  capacity.  A  riot  ensued,  and  before  the  Hun- 
garian commander  in  charge  of  the  whole  camp  could 
prevent  it,  quite  a  slaughter  had  taken  place  among  the 
contending  forces.  The  Servians  fought  with  their 
knives  and  several  Russians,  disembowelled,  strewed  the 
bloody  ground.  A  score  of  others  were  seriously  wound- 
ed. When  at  last,  that  is,  at  the  expiration  of  about 
fifteen  minutes,  a  detachment  of  the  Hungarian  guards 
interfered  with  guns  loaded,  there  was  no  other  way  to 
stop  the  row  than  shoot  to  kill.  And  it  so  happened  that 
one  of  the  great  Panslavic  enthusiasts  in  the  camp,  a 
Russian  named  Arsen  Kalidaeff,  was  the  first  to  fall. 
He  had,  in  fact,  just  mounted  a  wagon  whence  he  was 
shrieking  at  the  crowd,  trying  to  pacify  them.  *' Broth- 
ers,'' he  shouted,  *' brothers — Slavic  brothers" — and  that 
is  as  far  as  he  got  when  the  bullet  out  of  a  Hungarian 
rifle  hit  him  and  killed  him  instantly.  The  usual  fate  of 
the  peacemaker.  After  that  the  Russians  and  Servians 
were  kept  strictly  apart.  Even  at  work  they  were  not 
allowed  to  mingle. 

This  race  riot  at  the  camp  of  Gyor  was  one  of  the  few 
serious  affairs  of  the  kind.  But  in  all  the  other  camps 
it  was  noted  that  the  Servians  were  the  most  intractable. 
They  did  not  get  on  any  better  with  the  Italians  when 
the  experiment  was  tried.  At  the  largest  camp  for  war 
prisoners,  that  of  Theresienstadt,  after  a  few  unpleas- 
ant experiences  of  the  same  kind,  all  the  other  prisoners 
were  transferred  elsewhere  and  only  Russians  retained. 
Of  course,  these  things  were  not  published  in  the  Vienna 
newspapers,  and  it  is  very  possible  that  other  similar 
events  may  have  occurred,  but  the  only  really  serious 
plot  among  the  war  prisoners  of  which  I  heard  was  that 
at  the  camp  near  Eger,  a  town  of  some  importance  in 


VISITS  TO  WAR  PRISONERS  285 

northwestern  Bohemia.  That  owed  its  inception  to  a 
number  of  Russian  officers  who  were,  some  of  them,  in 
the  camp  itself,  while  the  greater  number  had  been  con- 
fined in  more  pleasant  quarters,  a  chateau  of  some  pre- 
tension owned  by  Count  Dittrichstein  and  situated  but 
about  a  mile  from  the  camp  itself.  These  officers  had 
been  allowed  considerable  latitude,  although  none  of  them 
had  passed  his  word  not  to  engage  in  plots  of  escape, 
etc.  Eger  is  close  to  the  Bavarian  border,  and  across 
it  were  residing  some  Russian  ladies  whom  the  German 
authorities  had  not  interned  on  account  of  their  sup- 
posed harmlessness.  Some  of  the  officers  met  these  la- 
dies, and  with  their  active  aid  and  financial  assistance 
the  whole  conspiracy  was  hatched.  This  in  the  main  con- 
sisted in  the  plan  to  overpower,  at  a  given  signal,  the 
guards,  slay  those  that  resisted,  seize  the  guns  and  other 
weapons  obtainable,  together  with  the  funds  kept  at  the 
office  of  the  commander,  and  prevent  telephone  or  tele- 
graphic calls  for  reinforcements.  Then  to  leave  the 
camp  in  a  body  and  escape  across  the  line  into  nearby 
Bavaria,  with  a  relatively  safe  itinerary  to  Switzerland 
mapped  out.  Civilian  clothes  had  been  procured,  dis- 
tributed and  stored  up,  and  all  the  other  preparations 
nearly  completed  when  one  of  the  Russian  officers  in  the 
plot  himself  betrayed  it,  in  a  fit  of  drunken  bravado,  to 
his  host  at  the  chateau.  Wliereupon  immediate  steps 
were  taken,  and  the  projected  adventure  nipped  in  the 
bud.  It  would  have  been  a  rather  serious  matter  if  it  had 
been  allowed  to  mature.  Some  75,000  men  were  at  that 
time  in  that  one  camp.  These  under  the  lead  of  about 
350  of  their  officers  might  have  proved  quite  formidable 
to  overcome. 

As  a  general  thing,  however,  the  Russian  officers  did 
not  agree  well  with  their  men,  and  it  was  found  best  on 


286    AUSTRIA-HUNG AEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

all  accounts  to  keep  tliem  separate.  And  while  the  men, 
as  a  rule,  displayed  all  the  long-suffering  patience  of 
their  race,  it  was  otherwise  with  the  officers.  These  were 
for  the  most  part  insolent  and  exacting,  unreasonable 
in  their  demands  as  to  the  treatment  due  them,  and  ex- 
pected to  continue,  as  prisoners  of  war,  a  life  of  de- 
bauchery and  general  worthlessness.  Doubtless  there 
were  many  exceptions.  But  I  speak  of  the  rule.  The 
Austrian  and  still  more  the  Hungarian  government  be- 
haved to  them,  especially  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  war, 
with  great  indulgence.  They  were  shown  every  consid- 
eration. The  pay  they  promptly  received  every  month 
was  much  higher  than  that  paid  imprisoned  Austrian 
and  Hungarian  officers  in  Russia,  and  they  were  granted 
a  reasonable  amount  of  freedom  in  their  motions  and 
occupations.  But  those  privileges  were  in  many  cases 
grossly  abused.  And  to  maintain  any  discipline  amongst 
them  at  all  was  very  difficult.  In  most  cases  constant 
drinking,  gaming  and  love-making  was  their  idea  of  war 
imprisonment.  At  Neulenggbach,  a  fine  estate  placed  by 
its  Austrian  owner  at  the  disposal  of  the  government  for 
the  confinement  of  a  large  number  of  Russian  officers,  the 
custody  in  which  they  were  kept  was  of  such  a  mild  de- 
scription that  the  *' prisoners"  would  usually  spend  their 
days  and  nights  in  nearby  Vienna,  in  civilian  clothes  eas- 
ily obtained,  indulging  to  the  full  in  all  the  dissipations 
of  a  big  and  luxurious  city.  When  this  finally  was 
stopped  the  Russians  were  forever  invading  the  rural 
parts  in  the  vicinity  of  Neulenggbach,  seeking  their  prey 
among  the  "disconsolate"  grass  widows  whose  husbands 
were  at  the  front  fighting  the  brethren  of  their  adorers. 
The  thing  became  so  notorious  and  such  a  public  scandal 
that  at  last  the  joint  minister  of  war,  Krobatin,  was  com- 
pelled to  interfere  and  issue  strict  commands  to  abate 


VISITS  TO  WAR  PRISONERS  287 

tlie  nuisance.  Among  these  gay  Lotharios  among  the 
Russian  officers  were  many  belonging  to  the  highest  fami- 
lies of  Petrograd  and  the  Czarish  court  circles,  and  I 
suppose  the  more  recent  news  from  home,  telling  them 
of  the  revolutionary  upheaval,  must  have  proved  most 
unpleasant  and  inauspicious  to  them.  Observing  these 
titled  good-for-nothings  in  their  relations  with  their  men, 
the  humble  moujiks  in  uniform,  was  scarcely  ever  a 
pleasant  spectacle.  Even  while  in  captivity  themselves 
they  treated  the  poor  devils  Kke  the  dirt  under  their  feet 
and  addressed  them  as  dumb  slaves  and  common  cannon 
fodder.  I  recall  a  little  scene  of  such  brutality  in  the 
spring  of  1915.  It  was  at  Theresienstadt.  There,  it  must 
be  owned,  were  herded  any  number  of  unfortunate  speci- 
mens belonging  to  the  scores  of  subject  races  of  Russia 
— Mongolians  and  Tungooses  with  slant  eyes  and  hardly 
above  the  scale  of  cattle;  Ostyaks  and  Bashkirs  from  Si- 
beria's arctic  regions,  and  so  forth.  A  young  lieutenant 
belonging  to  one  of  the  Petrograd  crack  regiments  hap- 
pened to  pass  along  a  group  of  these  heathen  ''fellow 
citizens,"  and  they  heedlessly  did  not  salute  him  defer- 
entially enough.  Instantly  the  young  sprig  seized  a  cane 
from  a  nearby  crippled  soldier,  and  began  to  belabour 
the  culprits.  He  spat  in  their  faces  and  strack  at  them 
with  all  his  might,  drawing  blood  and  wounding  several 
of  them.  Wlien  he  at  last  stopped,  he  smiled  and  turned 
to  an  Austrian  guard  who  had  watched  the  scene  with 
bewilderment.  "These  hounds  must  be  taught  their 
duty,"  he  then  remarked  coolly  and  strolled  off. 

Speaking  generally,  the  Austrians  and  Hungarians 
treated  their  war  prisoners  as  humanely  and  even  as  gen- 
erously as  circumstances  would  permit.  Cruelty  is  not 
in  the  nature  of  either  of  these  two  nations.  I  have  seen 
from  them  many  evidences  of  fine  compassion  and  sym- 


288    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

patliy  with  these  wards  of  war.  Making  due  allowance 
for  the  fact  that  the  Dual  Monarchy  was  herself  in  a  bad, 
a  despei^te  plight,  throughout  this  long  war,  and  that  in 
the  matter  of  foodstuffs  she  was  most  decidedly  short, 
no  reasonable  person  could  find  fault  on  the  whole  with 
the  treatment  accorded  the  enormous  army  of  1,100,000 
of  her  war  prisoners.  There  was  never  any  attempt 
made  to  cover  up  deficiencies.  Neutral  delegations  were 
frequently  allowed  to  investigate  for  themselves,  and 
Red  Cross  commissions  both  from  Russia  and  neutral 
countries  were  freely  admitted  to  camps  and  hospitals. 
On  one  occasion,  in  the  spring  of  1916,  Russia,  after  a 
long  delay  and  a  series  of  evasive  replies,  agreed  at  last 
to  a  mutual  thorough  inspection  of  prisoners  of  war. 
On  either  side  a  delegation,  composed  of  a  score  of  Red 
Cross  ladies  belonging  to  the  highest  families  of  the  land, 
was  picked.  The  Princess  Montenuovo  headed  the  dele- 
gation on  the  Austrian  side,  and  the  Princess  Narish- 
kine,  a  relative  of  the  ex-Czar,  the  Russian.  But  while  on 
the  Austrian  side  every  courtesy  and  every  facility  to 
ensure  a  thorough  investigation  of  the  whole  subject  was 
willingly  granted,  the  contrary  was  true  in  Russia.  The 
old  emperor,  Francis  Joseph,  personally  received  the 
Princess  Narishkine  and  her  ladies,  and  assured  her  that 
not  only  would  they  be  authorised  to  go  anywhere  in  pur- 
suance of  their  task,  but  that  any  improvements  sug- 
gested by  them  should  have  a  sympathetic  hearing.  Well, 
the  Russian  ladies  saw  all  there  was  to  be  seen.  They 
penetrated  everywhere,  without  let  or  hindrance.  They 
were  given  unrestricted  intercourse  with  the  prisoners. 
And  when  -they  left,  after  a  kind  farewell  audience  with 
the  monarch,  they  had  hardly  anything  to  express  in  the 
way  of  wishes  that  could  be  realised  in  the  treatment  of 
their  unfortunate  fellow-countrymen.    But  in  Russia  the 


VISITS  TO  WAR  PRISONERS  289 

Austrian  delegation  did  not  fare  so  well.  There  they 
were  prevented,  even  by  force,  from  visiting  just  those 
places  where  they  had  been  told  the  prisoners  were  dealt 
with  most  rigorously.  Nevertheless,  within  the  narrow 
limits  permitted  them,  they  did  their  duty,  and  on  return- 
ing to  Vienna  drew  up  a  very  full  and  comprehensive  ac- 
count in  which  they  gave  with  due  exactness  facts,  dates, 
figures.  Their  report  was  so  made  as  not  to  draw  down 
unnecessarily  the  ire  of  the  Czarish  government,  but  yet 
specific  enough  to  show  how  very  remiss  Russia  had 
been  in  caring  adequately  for  her  huge  body  of  Austro- 
Hungarian  war  prisoners.  And  the  Russian  delegation? 
Princess  Narishkine,  before  leaving  Austria,  had  shown 
her  notes  and  the  outlines  of  her  report  to  a  number  of 
reputable  witnesses  in  Vienna.  But  not  a  liiw,  not  a 
single  word,  of  her  report  ever  appeared  in  print  after 
her  return  to  Petrograd.  The  contrast  would  have  been 
too  glaring.  On  the  other  hand,  right  after  her  return 
and  for  some  time  after,  the  Russian  press,  on  orders 
from  above,  waxed  indignant  at  the  ' '  unspeakable  cruel- 
ties" practised  on  ''poor  defenceless  prisoners"  by  Aus- 
tria-Hungary.   It  was  an  amazing  case  of  Punic  faith. 

From  personal  inspection  and  according  to  all  accounts 
received  by  me,  the  government  of  Austria-Hungary 
had  been  most  careful,  while  choosing  sites  for  and  erect- 
ing prisoners'  camps,  to  make  sure  of  the  following  five 
points:  (1)  To  locate  them  in  salubrious  spots;  (2)  have 
an  abundance  of  pure,  running  water,  and  to  have  per- 
fect ventilation;  (3)  have  the  dwellings  of  every  descrip- 
tion warm,  weather-tight  and  fitted  up  hygienically ;  (4) 
have  all  needful  sanitary  arrangements,  preventive  and 
curative,  so  as  to  make  epidemics  impossible;  (5)  have 
able  medical  superintendence,  including  a  laboratory  on 
the  place.    By  adhering  strictly  to  this  plan  the  rate  of 


290    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

mortality  has  been  kept  from  the  start  to  a  wonderfully 
low  figure — in  most  of  them  at  three  to  four  per  1,000; 
and  the  spread  of  infectious  diseases  of  all  kinds  has  been 
kept  down.  The  great  bulk  of  her  war  prisoners  being 
Russian,  I  will  mention  that  amongst  those,  coming  in 
from  the  front  in  Galicia  and  Bukovina,  there  was  at 
first  a  frightful  prevalence  of  such  contagious  diseases 
as  spotted  typhoid,  scarlatina,  smallpox,  bubonic  pest, 
dysentery,  cholera,  and,  above  all,  of  syphilis  and  vene- 
real disorders.  Up  to  the  winter  of  1914-15  this  had 
spread  in  the  camps  and  among  the  surrounding  civilian 
population,  even  Vienna  getting  her  share  of  the  infec- 
tion. Deaths  by  hundreds  occurred,  notably  from  ty- 
phoid. Then  the  Austro-Hungarian  ministry  of  war 
quickly  established  several  sanitary  central  control  sta- 
tions. These  were  fitted  out  with  a  staff  of  competent 
specialists,  nurses,  and  every  precaution  needful,  and 
were  placed  just  on  the  borders  of  the  Carpathians. 
Thereafter,  before  any  Russian  prisoner  was  allowed  to 
proceed  to  one  of  the  camps  he  had  been  under  medical 
observation  and  furnished  with  a  clean  bill  of  health. 
Within  a  short  while  these  precautionary  measures  bore 
fruit.  No  more  infections  in  the  hinterland;  no  more 
germs  of  disease  brought  into  camps.  As  to  one  of  the 
chief  requisites  for  health,  an  unlimited  supply  of  good 
drinking  water  w^as  amply  secured  in  all  the  camps.  At 
the  big  camp  of  Gyor,  for  example,  the  daily  supply  of 
water  available  for  each  person  was  180  liters  (about  47 
gallons)  of  the  finest  spring  water.  In  Theresienstadt, 
Eger,  Ladenburg  and  Bruck  there  is  connected  with  each 
block  of  dvv^elling  barracks  a  huge  bathing  hall,  where 
both  cold  and  hot  water  is  furnished  ad  libitum  to  the 
bather,  and  this  both  summer  and  winter.  The  organi- 
sation of  the  whole  elaborate  system  of  preventive  hy- 


VISITS  TO  WAR  PRISONERS  291 

giene  in  all  the  camps  (some  50,  from  the  last  available 
data)  had  been  entrusted  to  Prof.  Dr.  Schober,  one  of 
Vienna's  best  men  in  that  line,  and  he  certainly  achieved 
wonders,  at  small  expense,  too,  but  by  means  of  unceas- 
ing vigilance.  The  low  death  rate  (3  to  4  per  1,000, 
against  a  death  rate  from  five  to  ten  times  as  large  in 
the  leading  Russian  cities  in  peace  times)  would  be 
almost  past  belief,  especially  when  comparing  it  with 
that  obtaining  in  our  own  Civil  War,  when  it  rose  as  high 
as  65  in  Libby  Prison,  for  instance,  were  it  not  for  the 
high  state  of  modem  hygienic  science  and  practice. 

However,  hygiene  is  not  everything.    Body  and  mind, 
to  keep  in  good  condition,  require  also  cheerful   sur- 
roundings.   And  that,  of  course,  it  was  not  possible  to 
give.     The  Russians  suffered  most  from  homesickness. 
The  suicides  that  did  occur  among  them  (during  the  first 
twelvemonth  about  fifty  such  cases  were  reported)  were 
nearly  all  owing  to  that  mental  complaint.     Later  on 
things  were  better,  for  harmless  methods  of  recreation 
were  introduced  at  all  the  camps,  such  as  moving  picture 
shows,  vaudeville,  dance  halls,  amateur  concerts,  chorus 
singing,  etc.    In  Theresienstadt  camp  there  were  at  one 
time  no  fewer  than  six  such  places  of  entertainment  go- 
ing. Among  the  Russian  moujiks  there  are,  hidden  away 
among  their  straggling  villages    far   from   civilisation, 
many  wonderful  voices.    Whoever  has  heard  the  church 
choir  sing  the  Easter  hymn  at  St.  Isaac's  Cathedral  in 
Petrograd — a  choir  made  up  wholly  of  one-time  mou- 
jiks— will  easily  credit  that.     Such  bass  voices  as  are 
existing  in  Russia   by   the   hundreds,   unknown   to   the 
world,  voices  untutored  and  just  in  the  rough,  yet  voices 
mellow,    sonorous,    thrilling,    probably    exist    nowhere 
else.    And  during  this  war,  in  these  wretched  prisoners' 
camps,  these  voices,  or  some  of  them,  came  out  to  bring 


292     AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

comfort  to  the  souls  of  these  poor  fellows.  Any  number 
of  quartettes,  glee  clubs,  of  big  choruses,  of  groups  that 
had  come  together  in  haphazard  fashion,  formed  there. 
And  they  all  sang  the  quaint,  compelling,  melancholy 
folk  airs  of  the  vast  steppe;  of  the  Muscovy  of  old — 
often  sang  them  to  bring  tears  to  the  eye  of  the  listener. 
But  I  must  not  omit  touching  on  one  particular  fea- 
ture of  the  Russian  captive's  life  in  this  connection, 
namely,  the  employment  of  gangs  of  them  by  private 
civilians  or  the  State.  For  all  such  work  they  were  paid ; 
at  a  rather  low  rate,  it  is  true,  and  part  of  their  wages 
was  ikept  back  by  the  authorities  as  a  precautionary 
measure  against  escape.  Still  they  were  paid,  and  that 
meant  much  to  them.  It  enabled  them  to  purchase  to- 
bacco, warm  underclothing,  newspapers,  illustrated  peri- 
odicals, and  a  lot  of  other  things,  especially  extra  food. 
Talking  of  escapes,  though,  brings  to  mind  the  fact  that 
a  great  many  did  escape,  after  all,  though  relatively  few 
managed  to  reach  finally  the  shelter  of  the  nearest  neu- 
tral country — in  this  case  Switzerland.  I  recall  the  case 
of  one  such  Russian,  a  skilled  mechanic  at  home,  who 
succeeded  in  evading  pursuit  during  his  long  itinerary 
from  Linz,  Austria,  to  Bregenz,  just  on  the  border  of 
Switzerland.  And  there,  as  ill  luck  would  have  it,  he 
was  caught  in  midlake — he  tried  to  swim  across  that  edge 
of  Lake  Constance — by  a  vigilant  Austrian  customs  offi- 
cer. Four  weeks  he  had  been  on  his  flight ;  the  nights  he 
had  slowly  crept  onwards  through  dark  woods  and  along 
little  trodden  paths,  and  days  he  had  slept  in  the  under- 
brush or  in  a  deserted  cabin.  Another  case,  but  one 
more  successful,  was  that  of  a  little  band  of  five,  who 
had  broken  out  of  their  labour  camp  in  the  Tyrol,  lived 
by  plundering  huts  whose  inmates  were  temporarily  ab- 
sent, had  robbed  a  forest  guard  of  his  guns  and  other 


VISITS  TO  WAK  PRISONERS  293 

weapons,  and  had  finally  crossed  over  into  Italian  terri- 
tory. Probably  a  thousand  or  two  such  escapes  were 
attempted,  and  not  more  than  five  in  a  hundred  suc- 
ceeded. In  most  instances  it  was  the  pathetic  ignorance 
of  these  men  which  doomed  the  attempt  to  failure  from 
the  start.  For,  as  a  rule,  they  knew  absolutely  nothing 
of  the  geography  of  the  country  against  which  they  had 
helped  to  make  war.  Austria  was  to  the  low-class  Rus- 
sian only  another  name  for  Germany,  for  he  noticed  all 
these  peop'le  spoke  German.  So  they  were  to  him  "Ne- 
mec"  (German),  and  Vienna  he  confused  with  Berlin, 
and  believed  that  Russia  began  "just  over  there."  In 
a  few  cases  they  had  one  of  their  old  Russian  school 
maps  along.  On  that  Russia  was  immense,  as  indeed  it 
is,  and  Austria  just  a  tiny  spot  on  the  map,  ''just  a  flea- 
bite,"  as  one  of  them  expressed  it.  And  so  he  thought 
that  within  a  few  hours,  or  at  most  a  couple  of  days,>  he 
would  find  himself  in  dear  old  Russia,  MamusJika  Ros- 
sya,  again.  And  so  they  had  been  caught,  nine  out  of 
ten. 

But  life  for  those  of  them  who  hired  out  for  some  sort 
of  civilian  employ  was  not  so  hard.  They  enjoyed  a  sort 
of  liberty.  They  were  treated  with  considerable  for- 
bearance. The  Austrian  or  Hungarian  peasant  whose 
crop  he  helped  to  bring  in  and  put  in  the  barn  soon  had 
the  measure  of  these  Russians.  When  treated  kindly 
there  was  no  harm  in  him,  provided  he  was  kept  away 
from  strong  drink.  Austrian  beer  he  liked,  but  found 
very  expensive,  but  Austrian  wines  he  did  not  care  for — 
''too  sour,"  he  said,  and  began  to  talk  in  broken  German 
of  the  heady,  sweetish  wine  of  his  own  Caucasus.  He 
was  sent  up  to  the  vineyards,  too ;  in  the  vicinity  of  Vi- 
enna, at  one  time,  there  must  have  been  several  thou- 
sands of  Russian  soldiers  getting  in  the  vintage  of  1915; 


294    AUSTRIA-HUNGAKY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

and  in  Hungary's  famous  wine  district,  the  Hegyalla, 
and  around  Tokay,  he  also  toiled,  cutting  grapes  in  the 
fall,  grafting  and  trimming  in  the  spring.     What  he 
didn't  understand,  this  moujik  used  to  the  level  plains 
of  central  or  southern  Russia,  was  the  ''humped  soil" 
(as  he  termed  it)  of  Austria.    All  these  mountains  made 
him  tired.    He  looked  upon  them  not  only  as  rank  nui- 
sances, but  as  a  positive  detriment  to  the  country.    And 
in  a  way  he  was  right  in  his  primitive  philosophy.    With 
these  Austrian  and  Hungarian  peasants  he  felt  easy— 
they  were  of  his  own  ilk.    He  could  fathom  their  mo- 
tives; he  could  understand  their  lives.     They  were  not 
"panye"  people  (lords),  and  he  soon  grew  familiar  with 
them  and  they  with  him.    The  little  ones  of  his  employ- 
ers he  grew  very  fond  of,  as  a  rule.    He  would  dandle 
them  on  his  lap  and  hum  Russian  cradle  songs  to  them; 
he  would  carve  them  bows  and  arrows  to  play  with.    He 
would  learn  enough  German  and  Hungarian  in  a  short 
while  to  converse,  to  make  comparisons  with  home.    He 
could  never  be  made  to  understand  why  it  was  necessary 
to  work  so  hard,  so  hurriedly.    "Enough  to  eat,"  that 
was  what  he  said  was  enough  for  anybody.  And  if  he  was 
musical  and  could  touch  his  balalaika  (a  rather  primi- 
tive sort  of  guitar,  more  like  a  banjo),  and  among  the 
gangs  of  ten  or  twenty  or  fifty  that  he  worked  with,  in 
most  cases  there  would  always  be  some  that  could  do 
this,  why,  then,  he  would  play  and  sing  of  an  evening 
seated  on  his  haunches  at  the  barn  door.    So  the  moujik 
whose  name  was  legion  doubtless  enjoyed  himself  after 
a  fashion  toiling  in  the  fields  and  vineyards  of  the  foe 
that  he  had  one  day  left  home  to  do  battle  with.    And 
mighty  few  attempts  at  escape  were  made  by  him  from 
such  easy  and  rather  sympathetic  quarters.    He  ate  with 
his  hosts  at  the  same  table  and  cracked  rustic  jokes  and 


VISITS  TO  WAR  PRISONERS  295 

spoke  of  the  peace  that  was  surely  coining  and  that  would 
take  him  home  again  to  his  little  Sasha  or  Misha  or 
Aliosha.  Sometimes  he  would  pull  out  a  picture  of  his 
boy  at  home — a  picture  he  wore  at  a  string — and  praise 
him  and  read  the  last  letter  from  home  over  and  over 
and  over  again.  These  letters  from  home !  I  had  some 
specimens  translated  to  me,  letters  written  from  the 
heart  of  Russia,  not  from  her  savage  wastes.  There  is 
a  curious  eastern  ceremoniousness  about  them,  entirely 
different  from  similar  letters  written  by  American  farm- 
ers' wives.  The  letter  invariably  would  start  out  in  this 
wise: 

''Honoured  Ivan  Ivanovitch,  my  esteemed  husband: 
I,  Eudoxia  Paulovna,  bow  to  the  ground,  very  deeply. 
For  the  pope  (priest)  who  has  read  me  your  last  letter, 
has  told  me  how  you  are  thinl^ing  of  us,  of  me,  your 
humble  spouse,  and  of  your  father,  Ivan  Alexei'tch,  and 
of  your  sister,  Natalia  Ivanovna,  day  and  night  ..." 

And  in  this  strain,  intensely  respectful,  it  would  go 
on,  until  the  real  family  and  village  news  came  to  be  re- 
tailed, when  the  letter  would  relate  that  the  brindled 
cow  had  calved;  that  one  of  the  oxen  had  been  sold  to 
the  government  at  a  good  round  price ;  how  a  neighbour 
had  done  not  nearly  so  well  with  the  cattle  and  the  pig 
he  had  driven  to  market,  etc.,  etc.,  etc.  And  this  letter, 
the  last  one,  our  friend  in  the  custody  of  the  Austrian 
farmer's  wife  had  read  to  a  shred.  And  mostly  he  would 
groan,  nearly  every  day :  ' '  No  mail.  No  mail.  I  won- 
der if  the  mail  is  still  going.  Or  perhaps  peace  is  al- 
ready declared,  only  we  don't  know  it  here  in  this  corner 
of  the  world." 

But  all  the  Russian  prisoners  of  war  did  not  help  the 
farmers  of  Austria  and  Hungary  getting  in  their  crops. 
Many   more   thousands    were    employed  road   building 


296    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

and  repairing;  toiling  in  the  coal  and  iron  mines  of  Bo- 
hemia or  Styria;  laying  tracks  on  short  auxiliary  rail- 
way lines  behind  the  Italian  front;  felling  trees  in  the 
woods,  and  work  of  other  description.  This  work  was 
not  moujik  work,  and  to  do  it  other  Russians  were 
picked  out — miners  and  day  labourers,  mechanics  and 
machinists,  and  they  were  under  much  stricter  surveil- 
lance and  not  so  tolerantly  and  patriarchally  treated. 
They  laboured,  however,  honestly,  but  very  slowly. 
Their  deliberateness  of  motion  was  a  standing  joke.  But 
they  were  fed  more  abundantly  than  their  fellows  in 
camp,  and  did  not  give  much  trouble,  as  a  general  thing. 
Now  and  then  rather  comical  situations  would  develop. 
I  recall  one  day  returning  from  the  Doberdo  front.  The 
Italians  had  kept  up  a  drum  fire  on  a  certain  sector,  and 
the  thing  was  becoming  uncomfortable  for  a  mere  civil- 
ian like  myself.  Several  miles  behind  the  front  I  met  a 
procession  of  Italian  soldiers,  just  taken  prisoner  by 
the  Austrians,  and  while  resting  a  spell,  listened  to  the 
examination  an  Austrian  officer  from  the  general  staff 
was  putting  some  of  the  more  intelligent  of  his  prison- 
ers through.  One  of  the  Italians,  a  corporal,  was  rather 
defiant,  saying  that  the  Russians  would  soon  force  the 
Austrians  to  retire  from  the  Italian  front  (this  was  in 
June,  1916).  The  Austrian  officer  thereupon,  smiling, 
remarked:  ''You  will  meet  Russians  a  little  further 
down  the  road."  The  Italian  was  nonplussed.  But,  sure 
enough,  another  mile  down  we  all  met  a  large  body  of 
Russians.  Only  they  were  breaking  stones  on  the  road. 
As  to  the  serious  crimes  committed  by  prisoners  in 
camps  and  out  of  them,  their  number  was  relatively 
small.  These  were  nearly  all  of  one  description:  homi- 
cides. The  Servians  outnumbered  the  Russians  five  to 
one  in  this,  although  they  counted,  all  told,  but  about 


VISITS  TO  WAR  PRISONERS  297 

150,000  against  the  900,000  Russians.  In  this  number  of 
Servians  are  included  the  85,000  of  Servian  civilians  that 
had  been  evacuated  by  the  Austrians  during  their  second 
big  campaign  against  Servia,  the  one  which  was  under- 
taken in  conjunction  with  Germany  and  Bulgaria.  But 
80,000  of  these  85,000  have  long  ago  been  repatriated, 
in  fact,  early  in  1916.  Only  5,000,  the  most  rabid  and 
intractable,  had  been  kept  in  detention  camps.  Among 
the  Servian  prisoners  of  war  was  an  unusually  large 
percentage  of  women  and  half-grown  boys.  The  Aus- 
trian officer,  a  veteran  captain  of  hussars  (now  crip- 
pled and  incapacitated),  with  whom  I  discussed  this 
point,  said  to  me  in  explanation:  "The  Servians  had 
been  systematically  fanaticised  for  a  decade  before  this 
war  broke  out.  Their  press,  their  government,  their 
priests,  had  taught  them  that  Austria-Hungary  must  be 
crushed  in  order  to  make  Servia  great.  So  that  when 
our  troops  at  last  invaded  Servia,  they  were  met  by  a 
raving  population.  Even  the  old  men  of  70,  the  boys  of 
12,  the  women  of  every  age,  had  been  given  hand  bombs, 
old  handjars  taken  from  the  Turks  in  the  Balkan  War, 
and  ancient  rifles  out  of  the  national  arsenal  at  Kragu- 
yevac,  and  as  homitadjis,  in  bands  large  or  small,  they 
assailed  our  men  from  every  side,  from  the  woods,  the 
rocks,  the  ripening  corn  fields.  And  the  worst,  the  most 
desperate  amongst  them  were  the  half-crazed  women. 
My  own  son,  a  lieutenant  in  the  first  campaign  of  the  fall 
of  1914,  fell  a  victim  to  such  a  female  fiend.  He  had  let 
her  go  after  she  had  been  caught  red-handed  shooting 
at  our  men  from  ambush,  because  he  had  noticed  that  she 
was  soon  to  become  a  mother.  But  she,  quick  as  a  flash, 
drew  a  pistol  from  her  bosom  and  killed  him.  With 
such  fanatics  there  is  no  compromise  possible.    That  is 


298    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

why  there  are  so  many   Servian  women  here  in  this 
camp. ' ' 

The  visit  I  paid  to  the  detention  camp  at  Wels,  Upper 
Austria,  showed  me  that,  while  the  camp  itself  had  noth- 
ing remarkable  about  it,  Austria  had  certainly  behaved 
toward  her  alien  enemy  population  with  consideration. 
I  have  been  told  that  as  to  Hungary  that  is  still  more  the 
case,  and  that  barely  2,500  or  3,000  of  them  have  been 
put  under  permanent  or  temporary  confinement.  In 
Austria  the  total  number  of  residents  belonging  to  the 
nations  in  a  state  of  belligerency  with  her  was  at  the 
breaking  out  of  the  war  between  75,000  and  80,000.  Of 
these  not  even  ten  per  cent,  have  been  put  in  detention 
camp,  namely,  slightly  over  6,000.  Of  these,  in  the 
course  of  time  and  on  promise  of  undertaking  nothing  of 
a  hostile  nature  against  the  State,  a  further  2,200  have 
been  set  free;  so  that  the  remainder  numbers  below 
4,000.  At  the  camp  itself  I  found  the  usual  pathetic 
scenes,  due  to  the  fact  that  nearly  every  person  present 
meant  a  ruined  and  broken  existence.  For  all  these  peo- 
ple had  carried  loyalty  to  the  country  of  their  birth  to 
the  point  of  finding  themselves  unable  to  forswear  active 
hostility  against  their  second  home,  the  country  actually 
sheltering  them.  Fanatics  of  one  sort  or  another,  I  said 
to  myself.  And  yet  that  was  not  true,  as  I  looked  a  little 
more  closely  into  things.  There  were  many  cases,  I  dis- 
covered, where  the  explanation  was  easily  understood. 
However,  this  I  found,  at  any  rate,  to  be  true  that  these 
several  thousands  of  civilians  of  every  age  and  sex  could 
not  reconcile  it  with  their  patriotism  and  conscience  to 
refrain  from  open  manifestations  of  hostility  against 
Austria,  if  given  the  opportunity  for  it.  But  it  would  be 
going  too  far  to  discuss  this  question  here  in  its  various 
bearings.    My  ofiicial  informant,  to  whom  I  applied  for 


VISITS  TO  WAR  PRISONERS  299 

a  solution,  gave  me  some  interesting  details.  It  appears 
that  both  in  Austria  and  in  Hungary  the  English  and 
French  governesses,  lady  companions,  language  teach- 
ers, with  very  few  exceptions  were  allowed  to  remain  in 
their  places  during  the  war,  on  their  employers  vouching 
for  them.  This  seemed  rather  astonishing  to  me,  as  this 
class  of  persons  has  always  been  regarded  with  more  or 
less  suspicion,  as  peculiarly  liable  to  espionage  in  war 
time,  and  this  in  every  country.  In  fact,  investigating 
things  a  little  more  closely,  I  found  that  a  number  of 
these  tutors  or  governesses — both  French  and  English — 
are  in  their  old  positions  in  the  homes  of  some  of  the 
highest  court  personages,  even  including  two  cousins  of 
Emperor  Carl  to  this  very  day.  I  asked  myself :  Is  this 
mere  carelessness  or  is  it  excess  of  good  nature? 

Certainly  these  are  undeniable  facts  that  all  of  the 
80,000  ' '  enemy  civilians ' '  in  Austria  but  4,000,  and  all  of 
the  30,000  in  Hungary  but  about  2,000,  are  enjoying  to 
the  full  their  old  ante  helium  rights ;  are  in  business,  in 
the  professions,  are  teaching,  earning  money,  are  moving 
freely  about,  without  any  restraint  except  (for  some  of 
them)  the  slight  restraint  of  having  to  report  periodi- 
cally to  the  police.  And  there  is  certainly  no  discover- 
able boycott  of  any  kind  practised  against  them.  In  all 
respects  they  are  treated  as  they  were  before  the  war, 
enemies  or  not.  I  cannot  help  pointing  to  this  fact,  and 
leave  it  to  the  reader  to  draw  his  own  conclusions  there- 
from. 

But,  without  drawing  any  conclusion  myself,  I  must 
confess  that  it  seemed  astonishing  to  me.  And  this  for 
the  reason  that  the  danger  threatening  the  State  from 
espionage  in  all  other  ways  appeared  to  me  to  be  rather 
magnified  than  belittled  in  Austria.  Thus,  in  leaving 
Vienna,  I  was  forced  to  leave  my  books  behind.    I  went 


300    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

to  the  chief  of  the  censorship  (and  anti-spy  measures)  and 
found  him  a  charming  old  gentleman  replete  with  cour- 
tesy and  bonhomie.  But  to  my  remonstrance  he  said: 
''Consider,  my  dear  sir,  that  espionage  against  us  has 
been  carried  on  very  largely  by  means  of  books  leaving 
the  country.  Needle  pricks  may  mean  all  sorts  of  things. 
We  lately  found  a  few  such  pricks  in  the  title  page  of  a 
book.  They  meant  in  an  agreed  code :  Turn  to  Page  65. 
On  Page  65  we  found  another  set  of  pricks.  And  so  it 
went  on  to  Page  115,  Page  227,  Page  336.  It  was  a  whole 
budget  of  treasonable  information.  Only  a  few  pin 
pricks.  So  how  can  we  tell?  Now,  your  edition  of 
Thackeray,  for  instance.  Each  small  volume  850-900 
pages.  Why,  it  would  take  this  assistant  of  mine.  Lieu- 
tenant D ,  a  fortnight  merely  to  go  through  your 

Dickens  and  Thackeray  and  Shakespeare  and  make  sure 
there  is  no  secret  inf  orrctation  in  them.  No,  no ;  the  books 
must  remain  in  Vienna.  After  the  war — ah,  well,  nous 
verrons.  Have  a  cigarette,  my  dear  sir?"  And  so  I 
came  away. 

And  then,  at  the  same  time,  a  whole  regiment  of  those 
arch-conspirators,  the  foreign  enemy  tutors  and  govern- 
esses, moving  about  free  as  air.  Isn't  it  amazing? 
Well,  to  my  mind  there  is  only  one  solution  to  the  riddle : 
It  is  thoroughly  Austrian. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

STRAY   FACTS   AND   PERSONAL   EXPERIENCES 

About  some  of  the  humbler  heroes— "The  Baby"  of  the  Honved  Regi- 
ment and  his  death — The  Major  and  his  hussars,  and  how  they 
fought — With  stocking  feet  in  the  snow— Because  "it  was  more 
comfortable" — A  modest  monument  on  the  crest  of  the  hill — Why 
wife  and  child  awaited  him  in  vain — The  parachute  in  the  tree — A 
dog  as  a  trained  spy — A  sycamore  and  the  skeleton  of  the  Italian 
niajor— "Pulpits"  for  observing  the  enemy— Artillery  instructions 
and  an  incident  at  the  Trentino  sector— A  church  tower  in  Volhynia 
— Horrible  holocaust — Censorship  and  press  conditions — In  Austria 
very  strict,  in  Hungary  very  lenient — ^Whole  proceedings  of  Hun- 
garian Parliament  suppressed  in  Vienna— Trips  beyond  the  border 
to  learn  the  facts— Budapest  during  the  war— Something  about  live 
"War  Brides"— Vienna  at  the  head  of  the  list— Government  pro- 
moted these  conditions. 

In  this  chapter  I  mean  to  retail  some  odds  and  ends  of 
personal  experience  during  the  war.  They  are  not  very 
important  events  chronicled  here.  But  each  of  them  has 
remained  fixed  in  the  writer's  memory  because  of  some 
distinctive,  peculiar  feature.  And  on  that  account  I 
trust,  despite  the  surfeit  of  ''war  news,"  they  will  also 
interest  the  reader. 

Let  me  say  at  the  outset  that  in  a  general  way  it  is 
rather  difficult  to  find  at  the  Austro-Hungarian  front 
your  typical  hero,  the  miles  gloriosus.  For  both  Aus- 
trians  and  Hungarians  hate  pose.  If  they  have  excelled 
in  any  way,  they  dislike  being  pointed  out.  But,  if  so, 
they  are  sheepish  and  shamefaced  about-  it.     They  are 

301 


302    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

simply  unable  to  brag,  to  hump  the  chest  and  challenge 
admiration.  It  is  not  in  them.  They  cannot  do  it.  That 
also  is  why  the  few  things  bearing  the  hall-mark  of  hero- 
ism of  which  I  heard  during  repeated,  though  brief,  stays 
at  the  fighting  fronts  toward  Russia  and  Italy,  I  heard 
from  the  mouths  of  others,  not  the  doers  themselves — 
from  their  superior  officers  usually.  When  at  the  Tren- 
tino  front,  for  instance,  one  day  I  was  shown  three  men 
in  the  uniform  of  the  Tyrolean  famed  Kaiserjdger.  The 
three  were  grandfather,  father  and  son,  aged,  respec- 
tively, 78,  49  and  23.  They  were  stalwart-looking  fellows, 
all  three.  But  it  seemed  to  me  as  though  the  one  of  78 
was  the  youngest.  He  was  supple  and  springy,  like  one 
of  his  own  native  chamois.  He  and  his  son  were  volun- 
teers, and  the  old  man — before  the  war  a  tourists '  guide 
in  the  Dolomite  Alps — had  one  night  climbed  an  almost 
perpendicular  peak,  some  11,000  feet  above  sea  level, 
with  a  handful  of  men,  and  had  surprised  and  ousted  the 
Italian  garrison  up  there,  in  the  middle  of  the  night, 
bringing  back  some  fifty  prisoners.  When  I  asked  this 
ancient  warrior  about  the  details,  he  laughed  uneasily 
and  kept  silent.  His  attitude  is  typical  of  these  men  who 
have  a  perfect  horror  of  painting  dramatic  situations, 
who  become  speechless  when  under  cross-examination. 
Sepp  Mayr — that  was  this  simple-minded  man's  simple 
name — simply  considered  he  had  done  his  duty  and  could 
see  no  reason  for  making  much  of  it.  This  Alpine  stock 
in  Austria,  more  especially  the  Tyrolese,  Styrians  and 
Salzburgers,  have  retained  much  of  their  primitive  fight- 
ing spirit.  They  are  bellicose  because  they  really  enjoy 
a  ''scrap."  There  is  in  them  an  admixture  of  Celtic 
blood,  and  in  more  than  one  way  they  reminded  me  of 
the  Irish.  The  following  little  anecdote,  told  me  by  an 
eye-witness,  will  illustrate  what  I  mean.    It  was  in  the 


STRAY  FACTS  AND  EXPERIENCES        303 

spring  of  1915,  the  scene  being  near  Brzezany,  Galicia, 
where  a  Styrian  regiment  had  just  stormed  a  Russian 
trench.  But  some  few  of  the  Russians  showed  fight, 
although  their  comrades  held  up  their  hands  in  token  of 
surrender.  And  so  Nazi  Boldt,  a  son  of  Enak,  who  in 
Styria  had  been  making  a  living  felling  trees,  threw 
down  his  rifle  and  went  for  the  nearest  Muscovite,  him- 
self a  man  of  many  inches,  shouting  to  him:  "Oh,  you 
want  to  fight?  You  haven't  got  enough?  All  right,  here 
goes ! ' '  And  forthwith  began  to  wrestle  with  him,  using 
only  his  bare  fists.  A  "broth  of  a  boy."  Just  for  the 
mere  love  of  fighting.  He  tackled  and  threw  him  and  be- 
laboured him  with  his  ham-sized  paws,  until  the  Russian 
cried  for  mercy.  Then,  just  as  good-naturedly,  he  de- 
sisted. 

And  because  of  this  pugilistic,  contentious  instinct,  the 
Magyars  throughout  this  war,  themselves  being  of  a  very 
similar  disposition,  and  the  Croats,  who  are  also  of  the 
same  way  of  thinking,  of  all  their  comrades-in-arms  loved 
these  Alpine  Teutons  best.  I  heard  any  number  of 
stories  testifying  to  that.  Perhaps,  though,  the  valour 
of  the  Magyars  is  of  a  higher  grade.  Here,  for  instance, 
is  a  little  incident  (for  which  I  can  vouch)  which  illus- 
trates this.  In  a  certain  Hungarian  regiment  of  Jionveds 
{honved  is  the  Hungarian  equivalent  of  the  German 
landwehr)  a  young  fellow  had  joined  early  in  the  war. 
Aladar  Bitto  was  his  name,  and  his  father  occupied  a 
high  government  position  in  Budapest.  Aladar  was  the 
youngest  in  the  family,  barely  18,  with  a  face  as  smooth 
and  round  as  a  billiard  ball.  It  was  rosy  and  girlish,  and 
in  the  regiment  they  had  given  him  the  nickname  "The 
Baby. ' '  But  Aladar  misliked  the  name  intensely,  and  he 
was  also  ambitious.  It  was  in  Volhynia,  and  the  trench 
warfare  afforded  little  opportunity  to  distinguish  him- 


304    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

self  till  one  day.  It  had  been  noticed  that  over  on  the 
Russian  side  something  unusual  was  brewing.  The  near- 
est Russian  trenches  were  1,200  yards  off.  The  space 
between  was  rolling  prairie,  and  on  tussocks  coarse  grass 
often  grew  four  feet  high.  There  were  some  hollows  here 
and  there,  some  morass,  and  some  brush  and  bramble.  It 
had  been  found  impossible,  though,  on  the  Hungarian 
side,  to  determine  the  motive  for  this  restlessness  among 
the  Russians.  Young  Bitto  volunteered  to  find  out.  His 
captain  at  first  would  not  let  him  go  on  such  dangerous 
reconnoitring,  mostly  because  of  his  extreme  youth  and 
inexperience.  But  the  young  man  had  thought  it  all  out. 
He  described  his  plan  minutely.  Though  risky,  it  seemed 
feasible.  And  finally,  after  consulting  the  colonel  com- 
manding the  regiment,  he  granted  Bitto  the  permission 
so  eagerly  sought,  only  stipulating  that  he  was  to  take 
along  another  man,  one  older  and  more  experienced.  The 
moon  would  not  rise  till  about  two,  and  six  hours  would 
thus  be  his  to  make  his  discoveries  in.  When  the  two 
started,  Bitto  took  at  once  charge  of  the  expedition.  At 
first  the  most  difficult  thing  was  to  find  the  way.  There 
were  few  landmarks  to  guide  them.  Mostly  they  had  to 
crawl  on  their  bellies,  and  the  telephone  they  had  taken 
along  and  which  connected  them  directly  with  the  tent 
of  the  colonel,  got  its  thin  cord  often  enough  entangled 
in  the  weeds.  Besides,  it  was  a  cumbrous  thing  to  drag 
along.  Several  times  they  almost  ran  into  a  Russian  pa- 
trol, evidently  sent  out  on  the  same  sort  of  spy  work,  but 
they  managed  to  evade  them.  And  thus  they  approached 
the  enemy's  first  trenches  closer  and  closer.  They  sepa- 
rated and  agreed  to  meet,  if  alive,  a  short  distance  be- 
hind, to  compare  notes.  Young  Bitto  alone  crawled 
ahead  with  greater  precaution.  He  soon  saw  that  the  ad- 
vanced trench  was  being  filled  by  detachments  from  the 


STRAY  FACTS  AND  EXPERIENCES        305 

rear,  coming  in  single  file  into  the  connecting  trendies. 
He  heard  the  deadened  clatter  of  arms ;  also  instructions 
and  commands  given  in  subdued  voices.  There  could  be 
no  doubt;  the  Russians  planned  a  storming  attack.  He 
was  but  a  few  paces  off  from  one  of  the  Russian  double 
sentinels.  Suddenly  his  telephone  struck  against  a  pob- 
ble  on  the  ground.  There  was  a  slight  click,  and  in- 
stantly the  nearest  sentinel  raised  his  rifle  and  pointed 
it  in  his  direction.  He  saw  the  man  searching  with  his 
eyes  in  the  half -gloom  of  the  night.  The  Russian  raised 
his  gim,  and  Bitto  instantly  let  go  at  him  with  his  re- 
volver. He  saw  the  man  drop.  He  heard  the  second 
sentinel  turn  and  face  in  his  direction.  He  dimly  per- 
ceived that  the  Russians  in  the  trenches  had  halted.  He 
seized  his  field  telephone,  lying  on  the  ground,  and  gave 
the  agreed  signal,  ''Tee-tee,"  over  the  wire.  He  could 
hear  the  answering  signal  of  the  colonel's.  He  hastily 
but  distinctly  and  in  cold  blood  sent  the  message :  ' '  Rus- 
sians preparing  attack.     Almost  ready "     Then  he 

fell  pierced  by  a  dozen  bullets  that  had  been  fired  at  him 
by  the  Russians,  who  had  hurried  up  and  discovered  him. 
His  lifeless  arm  still  grasped  the  telephone.  He  had 
frustrated  the  Russian  surprise  party. 

In  this  whole  war  of  many  millions  I  have  not  heard 
of  an  action  more  gallant,  more  imbued  with  the  un- 
daunted spirit  of  old,  than  that  in  which  Major  Vaszonyi 
and  his  regiment  of  Hungarian  hussars  were  annihilated. 
It  was  late  in  the  winter  of  March,  1915,  in  the  region  be- 
tween Przemysl  and  the  Carpathian  passes.  The  colonel 
who  had  commanded  the  regiment  had  been  killed.  Dur- 
ing previous  encounters  the  regiment  had  lost  nearly  40 
per  cent,  of  its  active  strength.  But  here  it  was  again, 
defending  a  hill  of  strategical  importance,  600  feet  in 


306     AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

height,  against  a  Russian  advance.  The  Hungarians 
were  finally  pushed  up  higher  and  higher,  until  they  made 
their  last  stand,  against  fourfold  odds,  on  the  wooded 
crest.  To  fight  better,  to  ''be  more  comfortable,"  as  Ma- 
jor Vaszonyi  put  it,  he  and  his  men  had  taken  off  their 
heavy  riding  boots  and  stood  in  the  deep  snow  in  their 
stocking  feet.  This  regiment,  in  their  scarlet  attilas, 
was  known  like  the  other  Hungarian  hussars,  under  the 
dreaded  name  of  the  ' '  Red  Devils ' '  by  the  Russians.  And 
indeed  like  devils  they  fought.  They  had  but  their  car- 
bines and  their  curved  sabres,  against  the  Russian  rifles 
of  greater  range,  but  as  they  came  to  close  quarters  they 
threw  away  the  carbines  and  used  only  their  sabres,  their 
fists,  their  teeth.  But  very  few  of  the  whole  regiment 
escaped,  or  were  taken  prisoners  by  the  overwhelming 
number  of  Russians.  When,  on  the  second  day  after, 
Austrian  and  Hungarian  reinforcements  arrived,  the  last 
battlefield  of  this  dauntless  band  was  discovered  up  on 
the  mountain  top,  on  a  meadow  surrounded  by  a  dense 
grove,  and  there  they  lay,  the  dead  of  both  sides,  in  rows 
and  in  heaps.  The  group  around  the  fallen  hero.  Major 
Vaszonyi,  was  most  significant.  The  snow  showed  pud- 
dles of  frozen  blood,  and  he  himself,  with  an  army  re- 
volver, of  which  every  chamber  was  emptied,  near  him, 
had  in  each  fist  a  throttled  Russian. 

Three  months  later  the  Austro-Hungarians  held  once 
more  the  whole  surrounding  district.  That  meadow  has 
since  been  turned  into  a  graveyard,  in  which  plain  iron 
crosses  puncture  the  sod.  The  finest  and  tallest  of  these 
crosses,  though,  in  a  few  lines  of  raised  lettering,  tells  of 
the  fierce  death-grapple  made  here  by  the  hussar  regi- 
ment and  its  commander. 

Another  action,  likewise  a  glorious  defeat,  calling  here 
for  a  brief  mention,  was  that  which  the  small  cavalry 


STEAY  FACTS  AND  EXPERIENCES       307 

body  forming  part  of  the  Polish  Legion  fighting  under 
the  Austrian  flag  had  in  that  triangular  section  of  East- 
em  Galicia  adjoining  Bessarabia.  In  itself  it  was,  from 
a  tactical  viewpoint,  an  almost  inexcusable  blunder  of  the 
Legion's  commander.  General  Pilsudski,  for  it  entrusted 
a  task  impossible  of  fulfilment  to  this  small  detachment 
of  uhlans,  scarcely  400  of  them,  thus  uselessly  consigning 
them  to  certain  destruction.  But  as  a  valiant  feat  of  the 
soldier's  unquestioning  obedience  it  deserves  high  praise. 
Some  Russian  trenches  had  proved  impregnable,  and  as 
a  last  resort  Pilsudski  ordered  his  uhlans  to  attack  and 
take  them.  The  Russians  at  first  were  so  dazed  by  the 
attack,  evidently  regarding  it  as  a  crazy  feat  of  useless 
daring,  that  for  a  short  time  it  looked  as  though,  after 
all,  the  experiment  should  succeed.  The  men  in  the 
trenches  were  overridden,  held  up  their  hands,  and  then 
saw  the  horses  and  their  riders  rushing  on  to  the  next 
trenches.  These,  too,  made  no  great  resistance,  although 
the  thin  line  of  attackers  grew  thinner  by  shot  and  bullet. 
Only  in  the  third  row  of  trenches,  some  1,500  yards  from 
the  starting  point,  did  the  gallant  fellows  meet  their 
doom.  Here  they  also  had  penetrated  victoriously,  and 
to  the  shouted  demand  to  surrender  the  officers  in  these 
trenches  were  on  the  point  of  yielding,  when  like  light- 
ning the  conviction  came  to  them  that  this  handful  of 
riders  was  all  there  was  to  it — that  there  were  no  others 
following  or  backing  them  up.  Then  one  of  the  Russian 
officers  in  stentorian  voice  called  upon  his  men  to  shoot. 
And  they  did,  and  that  meant  the  end  of  that  attack. 
Nearly  all  of  Pilsudski 's  mounted  troops  at  that  time 
perished  in  this  mad  adventure.  It  was  a  blunder — no 
doubt  of  it.  But  it  showed  the  mettlesome  temper  of  his 
race  that  the  entire  Polish  press — ^not  alone  that  of  Ga- 
licia, but  of  Russia-Poland  as  well — had  not  a  word  of 


308    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

censure  for  him.     "Theirs  not  to  question  why — theirs 

but  to  do  or  die." 

***** 

How  many  times  during  this  awful  war  must  have 
happened  to  others  what  happened  to  a  poor  Vienna  wife 
and  her  little  boy.  The  husband  had  been  fighting 
bravely  on  the  Italian  front  for  a  number  of  months. 
Then,  on  making  application  for  a  fortnight's  home 
leave,  it  was  granted  him,  the  date  of  his  departure  be- 
ing fixed.  The  day  before  he  had  been  ordered  to  mount 
guard  in  front  of  the  trenches,  being  stationed  pretty  well 
in  advance  at  a  point  of  observation.  At  last  he  is  re- 
lieved. Thank  Heaven!  His  last  bit  of  duty  fulfilled. 
To-morrow  he  will  start  to  see  once  more  his  dear  ones, 
to  breathe  once  more  the  air  of  home.  But  stop !  He  has 
no  gift  to  bring  his  little  boy — his  little  Steve.  He  is 
poor.  He  has  saved  very  little  from  his  scant  pay.  And 
during  the  last  hour  of  his  mounting  guard  the  enemy 
has,  to  enable  him  in  the  gathering  dusk  to  watch  better 
the  movements  on  this  side,  sent  up  bundles  of  small 
rockets,  as  has  often  been  done  before.  And  to  steady 
these  rockets  and  make  illumination  more  lasting,  little 
parachutes  were  attached  to  these  rockets  and  one  of 
these  parachutes  he  has  marked  exactly  in  falling.  It 
has  dropped  into  a  tree  not  far  off.  He  notices  it  clinging 
to  a  twig,  not  far  up.  A  parachute — well,  not  a  very 
costly  toy — not  as  pretty  a  one  as  he  should  have  liked  to 
bring  home  to  his  little  Steve.  But,  after  all,  a  toy.  So 
our  friend,  after  winning  back  to  his  trench,  eats  a  bite, 
smooths  up,  and  then  requests  permission  to  go  and  get 
this  parachute.  It  is  not  far  off.  He  gets  to  the  tree. 
Yes,  the  parachute  is  still  there,  fluttering  in  the  cool 
evening  breeze.  He  climbs  up,  he  puts  out  his  hand  to 
reach  it.     Sh-sh-sh!     A  new  rocket  is  sent  up  by  the 


STRAY  FACTS  AND  EXPEEIENCES        309 

enemy  over  yonder,  and  the  wind  drives  it  close  to  his 
tree.  ''Tack!"  Just  one  shot  from  the  trench  across. 
But  it  has  found  its  mark.  The  man  falls  off  the  tree — 
drops  like  a  sack. 

And  next  day  the  wife — the  widow — ^is  waiting  for  him 
at  the  railroad  station,  her  little  Steve  by  the  hand. 
Waiting  patiently  first,  then  impatiently.  Alas !  he  will 
never  come.    He  has  already  been  laid  in  a  grave  behind 

the  trench. 

***** 

At  this  same  Italian  front,  but  in  a  different  section  of 
it,  on  the  Isonzo,  there  was  for  a  long  time  a  peculiar 
landmark.  The  Austrian  artillery  some  distance  in  the 
rear  found  it  very  serviceable.  The  commander  of  a 
battery  would  say  to  his  men :  "Aim :  3,800  yards :  regu- 
lar tempo,  two  degrees  to  the  left  of  Major  Fabiani!" 
And  a  moment  or  so  later  there  would  be  a  rolling  thun- 
der, a  terrific  concussion  of  air,  and  some  heavy  objects 
would  fly  past,  just  two  degrees  to  the  left  of  Major  Fa- 
biani. You  will  want  to  know  who  Major  Fabiani  was. 
Major  Fabiani  had  been  artillery  observer  up  in  a  ''pul- 
pit" constructed  with  considerable  skill  in  the  space  be- 
tween two  of  the  big  branches  of  a  sycamore  tree,  said 
sycamore  tree  standing  on  a  hillock  in  such  a  position  as 
to  command  a  rather  extensive  view  of  the  Austrian  posi- 
tions about  1,600  or  1,700  yards  forward.  Probably  Ma- 
jor Fabiani  and  other  Italian  officers  from  time  to  time 
relieving  him  had  made  good  use  of  his  "pulpit."  It 
was  well  hidden  among  the  thick  foliage  and  behind  the 
trunk  itself.  But  the  Austrians  must  have  remarked  or 
suspected  that  there  was  something  queer  about  that 
sycamore  tree.  For  one  fine  day,  when  shooting  was  good 
and  the  air  was  clear,  a  perfect  hailstorm  of  shrapnel 


310     AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

came  down  and  destroyed  the  ''pulpit"  and  the  pulpi- 
teer. 

Since  which  Major  Fabiani,  dead  and  dried  to  a  skele- 
ton, is  bobbing  up  and  down  in  the  wind,  head  downward, 
and  the  body  held  in  place  by  the  coat  being  caught  in  a 
splintered  branch.  And  as  I  remarked  at  the  start,  this 
dead  and  gone  Major  Fabiani  now  fills  the  useful  pur- 
pose of  affording  a  landmark  to  the  Austrian  artillery. 
For,  as  experience  has  taught  them,  aiming  precisely  two 
degrees  to  the  left  of  the  swinging  target,  at  the  proper 
elevation  the  Austrian  "heavies"  just  plunge  a  few  of 
their  projectiles  into  the  Italian  concentration  point 
three  miles  in  the  rear  of  that  sycamore,  and  if  aiming 
five  degrees  to  the  right,  they  are  apt  to  create  serious 
discomfort  to  the  Italians  at  the  railroad  junction 
whence  ammunition  is  hauled.  Everything  is  measured 
from  Major  Fabiani  by  the  Austrian  artillery  in  that  vi- 
cinity. So  Major  Fabiani,  dead,  is  really  of  more  conse- 
quence to  them  than  Major  Fabiani,  alive. 

At  the  Volhynian  front  the  Austrian  forces  had  for  a 
long  time  another  landmark,  employed  for  a  similar  pur- 
pose and  almost  of  as  gruesome  a  character.  It  was  not 
far  from  the  small  Russian  fortress  of  Lutzk,  and  the 
landmark  was  the  church  steeple  in  the  little  village  of 
Bralowce.  To  be  still  more  exact,  it  w^as  the  scarred 
ruins  of  a  church  steeple.  For  w^hen  in  the  fall  of  1915 
the  Russians  had  been  compelled  to  retire  hastily,  they 
had  followed  their  habit  of  setting  fire  to  the  whole  vil- 
lage, and  the  flames  had  spread  so  rapidly  that  a  big 
group  of  villagers,  men,  women  and  children,  with  the 
priest  to  guide  them — had  not  been  able  to  escape  in  time. 
In  a  thick  tangle  they  had  been  crowded  together  on  the 
platform  of  the  square  tower,  and  there  they  had  been 
seized  by  the  fiery  tongues,  by  blinding  smoke  and  deadly 


STRAY  FACTS  AND  EXPERIENCES        311 

heat,  and  had  all  perished.     Looked  at  from  below  it 

was  one  frightful  clump  of  charred  flesh  and  bones.    Now 

ruined  church  and  burnt  village  lay  midway  between 

Austrians  and  Russians,  and  soon  the  Austrians  had 

picked  the  steeple  as  a  landmark  to  guide  their  artillery 

fire.    In  the  flat  landscape  of  the  Dniester  lowlands  the 

tower  stood  out  domineeringly,  and  using  it  in  this  way 

objects  of  military  interest  could  be  reached  for  miles 

ahead  with  exactitude.    Finally,  however,  the  Russians, 

having  been  informed  of  this  fact  by  Austrian  prisoners 

they  had  taken,  demolished  the  church  and  steeple  by  a 

few  well-directed  shots  from  their  big  guns.    That  was 

the  end  of  that  old  church. 

i^  *  *  *  * 

Much  has  been  said  and  written  about  the  important 
part  played  by  man's  best  friend  in  this  great  war.  Dogs 
have  been  trained  for  every  imaginable  purpose — chiefly 
to  assist  in  Red  Cross  work,  to  find  wounded  on  the  field, 
in  brush  and  swamp,  in  snow  and  mud.  I  remember 
watching  one  of  the  young  daughters  of  the  Archduke 
Leopold  Salvator,  Annunziata  her  name  was  and  she  was 
still  in  her  tender  teens,  educating  two  of  her  favourite 
pets  to  this  work.  She  did  it  in  her  father's  extensive 
grounds,  up  on  the  Galytzin  Hill  near  Vienna,  and  I  had 
to  admire  her  patience  as  a  teacher  and  trainer.  Alto- 
gether she  alone  donated  some  ten  of  such  self-taught 
war  dogs  to  the  Red  Cross.  She  was  indefatigable — at 
it  from  mom  till  night.  Many  other  ' '  stunts ' '  dogs  were 
made  fit  for,  such  as  messenger  work  between  trenches 
and  provisioning  stations;  to  drag  tiny  munition  carts 
where  the  territory  forbade  humans  performing  that 
task,  or  when  barrage  fire  made  other  approach  impos- 
sible. Thousands  of  dogs  have  been  utilised  for  these 
and  other  purposes  by  all  the  belligerents,  and  the  dog 


312     AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

has  never  shirked,  and  many  of  him,  very  many,  attested 
their  supreme  fidelity  by  a  violent  death.  But  that  the 
dog  has  also  been  used  as  a  spy,  I  confess,  was  new  to  me. 
And  yet  my  story  will  prove  it,  and  I  presume  it  is  not  a 
unique  case,  though  I  at  least  never  heard  of  another  like 
it. 

This  was  in  Galicia,  not  far  from  the  Rumanian  border. 
Russians  and  Austro-Hungarians  faced  each  other  there 
at  an  average  distance  of  one  and  a  half  to  two  miles. 
It  was  west  of  Brody.  The  whole  district,  settled  almost 
altogether  by  Ruthenian  peasants,  was  Russophil  in  its 
way  of  thinking.  For  years  before  the  breaking  out  of 
the  war  Russia  had  carried  on  a  very  systematic  and 
effective  propaganda,  carried  it  on  by  means  of  clerical 
as  well  as  lay  apostles,  by  word  of  mouth  or  by  booklets 
in  which  much  weight  was  laid  on  the  near  kinship  of 
Ruthenians  with  Russians  and  on  their  close  religious 
relations,  in  which  promises  were  made  of  a  new  distri- 
bution of  tillable  soil  among  the  impoverished  Ruthenian 
peasantry,  a  point  above  all  others  which  scored  a  hit 
with  these  land-hungry  people.  It  had  been  due  to  this 
propaganda  that  the  Austrian  government,  in  1913,  there- 
fore but  one  year  before  the  war,  had  finally  interfered. 
There  had  been  a  monster  trial  in  which  some  300  or 
more  of  Russophil  agitators  had  been  defendants  and  a 
number  of  convictions  made.  Well,  it  had  been  in  this 
district  then,  that  a  division  of  Austrian  troops  were 
trying  to  hold  their  own  for  months  against  Brusiloff's 
men,  and  in  trying  to  do  this  found  themselves  hampered 
at  every  step  by  treason  from  within.  Every  day  a  score 
or  so  of  these  Ruthenian  farmers  were  shot  for  betraying 
military  secrets  to  the  Russians  beyond.  The  Russians, 
however,  paid  well  and  no  stop  could  be  put  to  the  trou- 
ble.    Now  and  then,  when  the  Russians  in  advancing 


STRAY  FACTS  AND  EXPERIENCES   313 

had  stormed  and  taken  some  new  Austrian  positions,  and 
a  contingent  of  Russian  troops  would  occupy  a  Rutlienian 
village,  something  like  this  would  be  seen :  The  colonel 
or  general  in  command  of  this  body  of  Russians  in  tak- 
ing formal  possession  would  ride  to  the  centre  of  the 
market  square,  pull  out  a  list  from  his  breast  pocket,  and 
in  a  sonorous  voice  would  read  off  a  string  of  names, 
bidding  these  men  at  the  same  time  step  forward.  These 
smilingly  would  do  so,  and  the  Russian  commander  next 
would  pull  out  a  fat  purse  and  recompense  them.  For 
these  were  members  of  his  corps  of  spies,  men  who  had 
been  in  some  cases  for  years  in  the  employ  of  the  Petro- 
grad  government. 

When,  therefore,  my  informant.  Captain  Walz,  on  July 
27th,  1916,  had  to  move  into  new  quarters  at  the  village 
of  Magrannya  Globu,  he  and  the  subalterns  of  his  com- 
pany were  extremely  cautious  in  dealing  with  the  native 
population.  However,  the  only  house  in  the  small  place 
fit  to  live  in  was  that  of  the  Ruthenian  village  chief,  a 
man  named  Nikophor  Huszkiewicz.  He  had  a  wife  and 
four  sons,  was  the  only  man  of  means  there,  and  showed 
himself  quite  eager  and  pressing  in  his  hospitality. 

* '  But  here  was  the  rub, ' '  said  Capt.  Walz.  ' '  From  the 
moment  this  body  of  Austrian  officers  was  quartered  in 
the  man's  house,  things  on  our  section  of  the  front 
changed  for  the  worse.  Of  course  we  were  in  daily  com- 
munication, both  by  field  telephone  and  meldereiter,  with 
division  headquarters.  But  up  to  this  time  there  had 
been  no  leak.  Now  there  evidently  was.  It  was  certain 
that  the  Russians  facing  us  were  being  kept  informed, 
regularly  and  quickly  as  well  as  with  exactitude,  of 
changes  going  on  on  our  side.  Any  regrouping  of  our 
reserves,  our  batteries  and  machine  gun  companies,  was 
at  once  known  to  the  Russians.    Big  transports  in  the 


814    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

way  of  munitions  or  provisions  were  intercepted  repeat- 
edly, even  when  miles  in  our  rear.  There  was  only  one 
explanation :  successful  espionage  work  done  for  the  Rus- 
sians. I  watched  and  watched.  In  vain.  Yet  this  trea- 
son must  be  done  by  somebody  constantly  and  promptly 
informed  of  all  that  was  going  on  among  us.  It  hap- 
pened once  that  one  of  our  batteries  received  orders  be- 
tween eleven  and  twelve  at  night  to  move  next  morning 
at  eight  to  a  certain  point  miles  distant,  and  to  begin,  in 
the  shelter  of  a  grove  of  birches,  a  specified  bombard- 
ment against  a  point  on  the  Russian  front.  And  then, 
the  battery  having  arrived  and  just  begun  to  get  the  de- 
sired range,  a  tremendous  and  well-directed  fire  would 
be  opened  on  them,  forcing  them  to  decamp  with  consid- 
erable loss.  Briefly,  there  was  treason  in  this ;  it  could 
not  be  explained  on  any  other  theory.  A  number  of  ar- 
rests among  the  Ruthenian  population  were  made,  but 
in  no  case  could  anything  be  proven  against  them.  The 
mystery  seemed  insoluble.  Until  the  best  detective,  ac- 
cident, came  to  our  aid. 

''Huszkiewicz,  our  host,  cherished  with  singular  affec- 
tion a  dog  he  had,  a  cur  of  no  particular  breed,  a  snappy, 
semi-savage  mongrel  of  a  shepherd  dog.  However,  that 
fact  alone  was  not  very  astonishing.  The  dog  might 
have  good  points  not  visible  at  first  sight.  Against  us 
Austrian  officers  the  beast  showed  decided  animosity.  He 
did  not  even  allow  us  to  approach  him.  And  when  with 
his  master  his  fur  would  bristle  if  any  one  of  us  would 
merely  come  near  him.  Now  one  day  some  Russian  sol- 
diers were  brought  in  as  prisoners.  And  instead  of 
growling  and  snapping  at  these,  he  wagged  his  tail  in 
friendship  as  the  Russians  went  past  him.  One  of  the 
latter  even  bent  down  and  stroked  the  dog  in  a  petting 
way,  and  the  beast  suffered  him  to  do  so,  sniffing  at  his 


c 


STRAY  FACTS  AND  EXPERIENCES       315 

uniform  the  while.  This  discoveiy  made  me  reflect.  And 
Huszkiewicz,  when  I  mentioned  the  circumstance  to  him, 
talked  evidently  at  random.  Again,  I  now  took  notice  for 
the  first  time  of  the  fact  that  the  dog  wore  a  leather 
collar  of  peculiar  make  and  size,  closed  by  a  strong  look. 
Thinking  the  matter  over,  I  became  morally  certain  that 
somehow  the  dog  was  in  this  game  of  treason  and  that 
his  master,  Huszkiewicz,  was  the  brains  of  it.  Without 
exciting  his  suspicion  I  put  a  close  watch  on  him.  But 
only  two  days  after  did  I  succeed  in  laying  bare  the 
scheme.  In  fact,  I  caught  him  at  it.  Just  as  I  had  sus- 
pected, he  had  noted  down,  in  Russian,  the  essential  bits 
of  news  on  our  side,  on  very  thin  tissue  paper,  illustrat- 
ing his  report  by  rough  but  explicit  drawings.  And  this 
we  caught  him  inserting  in  the  hollow  interior  of  the  col- 
lar. With  such  regular  communications  his  dog  had  been 
in  the  habit  of  being  sent  across  to  the  Russian  trenches, 
and  in  each  case  the  dog  had  been  petted  and  treated  to 
tidbits  by  the  Russians  before  being  sent  back  to  our 
line.  That  had  been  the  simple  but  amazingly  successful 
game  of  Huszkiewicz.  Thus,  too,  the  dog's  preference  for 
the  Russian  uniform  was  explained.  His  master  did  not 
long  survive  this  exposure.  The  next  day  he  was  stood 
up  against  the  wall  and  a  well-directed  bullet  finished 
him."  This,  in  substance,  was  the  tale  told  me  by  Capt. 
Walz. 

Rather  curious  in  its  manipulation  and  effect  has  been 
the  war  censorship  in  Austria-Hungary.  While  in  Aus- 
tria it  was,  on  the  whole,  far  stricter  than  in  Gennany, 
the  reverse  has  been  true  of  Hungary.  Probably  this  has 
been  owing  to  two  chief  reasons,  namely,  first,  the  fact 
that  Magyar  is  a  tongue  understood  only  in  a  very  re- 
stricted territory  and  that  newspapers  and  periodicals 


316    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

printed  in  that  language  do  not,  as  a  rule,  exercise  much 
influence  abroad  on  that  very  account ;  and,  second,  that 
in  Hungary  a  very  sweeping  liberty  of  the  press  has  pre- 
vailed for  the  past  seventy  years,  not  even  modified  to 
any  noticeable  degree  during  these  war  times.  In  Aus- 
tria, on  the  other  hand,  some  few  newspapers  of  world- 
wide influence  are  issued,  and  true  freedom  of  the  press 
has  never  existed,  and,  of  course,  what  there  has  been  is 
now  greatly  curtailed. 

But  out  of  this  strong  contrast  there  grew  some  pe- 
culiar facts.  Thus,  the  relatively  few  Austrians  who  pos- 
sess any  knowledge  of  Magyar  at  all,  soon  after  the  war 
broke  out  became  subscribers  to  some  bold  and  outspoken 
Budapest  papers,  preferably  one  belonging  to  the  opposi- 
tion, such  as  the  Az  Est.  The  owners  of  the  Az  Est  had 
even  the  audacity  to  plaster  Vienna  all  over  with  wall 
posters  in  flaming  hue,  proclaiming  to  the  world — and  in- 
cidentally to  the  impotent  Austrian  censorship — that 
theirs  was  ''the  only  newspaper  telling  the  truth,  the 
whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth."  It  was  amusing 
to  watch  in  all  the  Vienna  coffee  houses  a  daily  scene : 
A  row  of  tables  shoved  together,  and  at  them  seated  with 
bated  breath  and  open  mouth  a  number  of  sensation- 
hungry  Viennese ;  in  the  centre  of  the  group  one  man,  the 
only  one  knowing  Magyar,  translating  the  latest  impor- 
tant news  retailed  solely  by  the  Az  Est. 

As  a  simple  matter  of  fact,  all  through  the  war  the  pa- 
pers in  Hungary  were  far  better  informed  and  printed, 
without  let  or  hindrance,  the  most  ticklish  news,  while 
those  in  Vienna  and  the  rest  of  Austria  had  to  keep  si- 
lence. All  sorts  of  such  news:  defeats  of  Austro-Hun- 
garian  armies;  surrender  of  whole  regiments  of  Czechs 
to  the  Russians  and  Serbs;  mutinous  conduct  of  troops; 
gross  blunders  of  the  government  in  handling  the  food 


STRAY  FACTS  AND  EXPERIENCES        317 

scarcity ;  peppery  and  almost  treasonable  threats  by  op- 
position members  in  the  Hungarian  parliament ;  incapac- 
ity shown  in  military  commands  by  the  archdukes,  etc., 
etc. — whole  budgets  of  such  news  crept  regularly,  through 
the  leak  afforded  by  the  Hungarian  press  license,  into 
the  other  half  of  the  monarchy.  There  it  was  whispered 
wherever  neighbours  met  in  the  streets.  Meanwhile  the 
Austrian  newspapers,  under  their  own  particular  and 
inconceivably  severe  censorship,  were  condemned  to  im- 
potence, dared  not  say  a  word  beyond  what  the  official 
blue  pencil  had  not  marked  off.  And  in  the  very  few 
cases  when  they  did  dare,  retribution  came  swift  and  ter- 
rible ;  for  such  indiscreet  organs  were  simply  confiscated 
and  their  appearance  prohibited  for  weeks  or  months, 
or  wholly  suppressed.  Very  curious  it  was.  In  Vienna 
worse  than  Muscovite  squelching  of  public  opinion;  in 
Budapest,  but  three  hours'  ride  by  rail,  unlimited  expres- 
sion of  public  opinion.  It  happened  several  times  that 
whole  reports  of  specific  sessions  of  the  Hungarian  par- 
liament were  tabooed  in  Austria ;  these  were,  of  course, 
those  in  which  topics  of  delicate  bearing  on  the  relations 
of  the  two  countries  or  other  things  had  been  discussed 
which  the  Austrian  censor  deemed  it  on  the  whole  not 
good  for  the  health  of  his  readers  to  know.  One  of  the 
comical  features  of  all  this  was  that  the  Viennese  when- 
ever their  curiosity  and  their  indignation  at  this  enforced 
policy  of  silence  had  attained  a  certain  pitch,  would  make 
up,  on  one  pretence  or  other,  whole  parties  and  under- 
take a  pilgrimage  to  the  Hungarian  capital  to  saturate 
themselves  with  forbidden  news  of  every  kind,  and  then 
return  home  satisfied  and  in  a  peaceable  frame  once 
more. 

In  the  course  of  the  war  I  paid  several  short  visits 
to  Budapest.     It  was  an  entirely  different  atmosphere 


318    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

into  wMch.  one  plunged.  Not  only  because  there  was 
neither  lack  of  reliable  news  from  every  source  nor  of 
palatable  meals,  but  also  for  the  reason  that  the  Hun- 
garians at  no  time  during  the  fearful  struggle,  not  even 
during  the  days  of  awful  suspense — when,  early  in  1915, 
they  expected  the  Russians  under  Grandduke  Nicholas 
Nicholayevitch  to  break  through  and  flood  their  country 
with  plundering  Cossacks — lost  courage  and  self-confi- 
dence. A  more  striking  contrast  those  days  it  was  hard 
to  conceive  than  the  timid  and  nervous  people  of  Vienna 
and  the  dare-devil  Magyars  of  Budapest.  In  the  elegant 
Andrassy  St.  of  that  gay  capital,  a  sort  of  Fifth  Ave., 
plus  the  buoyant  open-air  life  of  the  cafes  with  their 
gipsy  bands  forever  tuning  up  the  nerves,  no  stranger 
would  have  for  a  moment  supposed  he  was  in  a  city  but 
a  short  distance  from  where  a  lif e-and-death  struggle  was 
going  on — in  those  Carpathian  passes  where  hecatombs 
of  war's  victims  lie  still  bleaching  in  the  sun.  All  the 
reckless  life  of  a  pleasure-loving  city  was  rushing  on 
through  it  all.  There  was  as  much  gambling  and  as  much 
music  and  as  much  love-making  as  ever — at  least  to  all 
appearances.  And  on  Margit's  Isle,  that  Hungarian  edi- 
tion of  Monte  Carlo,  just  a  jump  from  Budapest,  the  pick- 
nickers  were  as  careless  as  of  yore.  A  strange,  a  wonder- 
ful city  is  Budapest — truly  a  town  where  East  meets 

West. 

#  *  *  *  * 

**  War-brides  "—not  the  kind  dealt  in  on  Wall  St.,  but 
the  genuine  article,  the  brides  wedded  when  war  broke 
out — have  been  a  great  factor  in  Austria,  also  in  Hun- 
gary. Vienna  easily  led  the  list.  For  the  peculiar  fea- 
ture about  this  matter  was  (for  both  countries,  but  more 
especially  for  Vienna)  that  these  weddings  at  the  very 
outset  of  the  long  war  were  not  of  the  ordinary,  hum- 


STRAY  FACTS  AND  EXPERIENCES        319 

druiQ,  bourgeois  kind,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten.  No,  tliese 
brides  had  nearly  all  been  wives  and  mothers,  all  but  in 
the  strict  meaning  of  the  law.  It  was  said  that  some 
115,000  of  such  long-delayed  weddings  were  celebrated 
in  Vienna  alone  during  the  first  three  months — August 
to  October,  1914.  In  Prague  the  number  was  reckoned 
at  about  26,000,  in  Budapest,  37,000;  and  so  forth.  Vi- 
enna, however,  furnished  both  absolutely  and  proportion- 
ally by  far  the  largest  number  of  such  belated  brides. 
Nearly  all  of  them  made  soldiers  their  lawful  lords  on 
the  eve  of  these  going  to  the  front.  The  government  paid 
all  these  new  wives  a  daily  stipend  (small  indeed,  but 
in  many  cases  the  only  means  of  subsistence),  that  is, 
where  the  need  really  existed  for  financial  support. 
Later  on  the  amount  was  raised  again  and  again  and  was 
graded  according  to  the  number  of  children  under  age 
that  these  women  had  to  look  after.  It  did  not  exceed, 
though,  in  any  case  K.  90  (about  $18)  per  month.  A 
singular  feature  in  Vienna  was  that  only  the  stress  of 
war  brought  out,  in  thousands  of  instances,  the  fact  that 
these  women  had  been  unmarried  so  long,  unsuspected 
by  their  friends  and  relatives.  Altogether,  it  was  calcu- 
lated by  an  Austrian  newspaper,  there  had  been  within 
the  Dual  Monarchy  at  the  time  war  exploded,  some  1,- 
200,000  of  such  non-legalised  unions  between  men  and 
women.  This  is  probably  a  unique  fact.  It  is  the  more 
incomprehensible  because  by  its  unwise  marriage  legis- 
lation the  Austrian  government  has  distinctly  promoted 
just  such  unhealthy  conditions. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

CONCLUDING  EEMAKKS 

The  fate  of  Austria-Hungary — Can  she  become  a  sort  of  United 
States,  with  full  autonomy  for  her  races  and  provinces? — The 
great  difficulties  intervening — German  supremacy  an  accomplished 
fact  which  plays  a  decisive  part — Will  there  be  a  revolution? — 
Liberalism  is  no  entity  in  either  Austria  or  Hungary — Problems 
of  racial  autonomy — The  makeup  of  the  parliament  in  Austria 
— The  latest  developments  in  Hungary' — The  "Mittel  Europa" 
idea — Still  a  puszle. 

In  venturing  on  some  concluding  remarks,  I  keep  in 
mind  the  extreme  difficulty  of  predicating  anything  defi- 
nite as  to  the  near  future  of  Austria-Hungary.  The 
reader,  if  he  has  had  patience  enough  to  follow  me  thus 
far,  must  have  seen  that  the  political  situation  of  the 
Dual  Monarchy,  leaving  out  of  consideration  the  equally 
involved  economic  one,  is  wrapped  up  in  so  many  con- 
flicting problems  that  an  arbitrary  verdict  is  out  of  the 
question.  Some  ideas  and  questions  that  naturally  occur 
to  a  student  of  Austro-Hungarian  conditions  at  this  pres- 
ent stage,  having  been  answered  by  me,  however,  in  a 
recent  magazine  article  in  a  manner  which  at  tliis  writ- 
ing at  least  I  could  not  improve  upon,  I  take  the  liberty 
of  making  partial  use  of  it  in  this  book.* 

To  undertake  the  task  of  a  prophet  has  always  been 
bad  business,  but  never  more  so  than  during  this  war 

*  "The  Fate  of  Austria-Hungary"  by  Wolf  von  Sehierbrand,  The 
World's  Work  for  June,  1917. 

320 


CONCLUDING  EEMARKS  321 

which  has  upset  all  predictions.  Not  to  come  to  grief, 
therefore,  it  must  be  understood  that  the  following  is 
not  to  be  looked  upon  in  the  light  of  a  forecast.  It  pre- 
tends to  be  no  more  than  a  grouping  of  the  ascertained 
facts,  so  far  as  they  crudely  present  themselves  in  the 
fierce  turmoil  of  a  world-wide  struggle,  with  the  conclu- 
sions that  may  be  derived  therefrom. 

Several  questions  come  uppermost  in  the  mind  when 
looking  at  the  Austria-Hungary  of  to-day. 

Will  Austria-Hungary  leave  Germany  before  the  end 
of  the  fight? 

To  this  the  answer  seems  plain:  It  would  be  certain 
political  and  economic  suicide  for  her  to  do  so.  Hence 
she  cannot.  And  without  elaborating  this  reply  for  the 
moment,  let  us  consider  the  next  obvious  question, 
namely : 

Will  Austria  be  subservient  to  Germany  after  the  war? 
And  to  what  extent  is  she  so  now? 

Briefly,  Austria-Hungary  cannot  help  herself  in  the 
matter.  Her  dependence  is  not  voluntary.  So  far  as  sen- 
timent is  concerned,  indeed,  there  is  very  little  love  lost 
between  the  two  countries.  For  Prussia  and  the  Prus- 
sians a  distinct  dislike  is  even  felt.  The  wounds  of  1866 
are  still  smarting.  Her  fall  from  power,  the  loss  of  her 
supremacy  in  the  Germany  of  that  time,  are  keenly  real- 
ised. Prussia  is  regarded  as  an  upstart  with  the  unami- 
able  qualities  of  an  upstart.  The  departed  glory  of  the 
Austria  of  old  is  deeply  regretted.  For  the  remainder  of 
Germany,  for  her  allies  of  1866,  for  Bavaria  and  Saxony 
and  Baden  and  Wiirttemberg,  there  is  lukewarm  sym- 
pathy. These  are  the  sentiments  of  the  patriotic  Aus- 
trians  of  the  old  school,  mainly  those  of  the  Teuton  Aus- 
trians.  For  the  young  empire  of  1871  there  prevails  a 
mingled  feeling,  made  up  of  about  equal  parts  of  admira- 


322    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

tion  and  fear.  The  Slavs  of  Austria  bear  their  power- 
ful western  neighbour  undisguised  hatred.  Of  Hungary, 
I  speak  elsewhere. 

But  needs  must.  Austria  is  firmly  convinced  that  with- 
out Germany's  strong  arm  to  support  her  she  is  doomed 
as  a  political  entity.  We  all  grasp  the  hand  that  is  held 
out  to  us  to  save  us  from  drowning,  no  matter  v/hose  it 
be.  As  Bismarck  once  styled  the  close  alliance  with  the 
Danube  monarchy:  Es  ist  eine  Vernunf  their  at  (a  mar- 
riage of  reason,  of  convenience). 

Consider  the  facts.  Look  at  Austria-Hungary's  pres- 
ent plight.  Austria-Hungary  is  economically  undevel- 
oped, or  at  least  not  sufficiently  developed.  Her  tur- 
bulent history,  plus  another  more  recent  element, 
i.e.,  the  race  strife  within  her  borders,  accounts  for 
that.  Of  that  one  becomes  aware  as  soon  as  one  crosses 
her  frontiers.  How  far  behind  she  is  in  intellec- 
tual development  is  best  seen,  for  instance,  by  studying 
her  latest  statistics.  From  them  it  is  seen  that  there 
are  whole  large  provinces  where  illiteracy  predominates. 
In  Dalmatia,  for  example,  the  percentage  of  inhabitants 
unable  to  read  and  write  is  65 ;  in  Galicia  it  is  62 ;  in  cer- 
tain districts  it  rises  to  73.  These  are  the  figures  of  1913. 
The  number  of  holidays  observed  is  excessive— they  total 
eighty-seven  during  the  year.  She  needs  capital.  Hun- 
gary especially,  though  a  country  abounding  in  natural 
resources,  urgently  requires  capital.  Formerly  Paris 
was  the  money  market  to  which  Hungary  applied  by 
preference.  But  owing  in  part  to  the  heavy  drain  on  her 
liquid  resources  made  by  Russia,  as  well  as  to  the  fact 
that  Hungary  formed  part  of  the  Dreibund,  that  market 
was  closed  to  her.  That  became  very  evident  during 
the  five  years  preceding  the  war  when  Hungary  vainly 
attempted  to  place  various  loans  for  internal  improve- 


CONCLUDING  EEMARKS  323 

ments  in  Paris,  There  was  a  financial  boycott  declared 
against  Hungary  by  France.  Thus  Hungary,  too,  was 
forced  to  turn  to  Germany  as  a  financial  backer. 

The  whole  banking  system  of  Austria,  her  financial 
status,  rests  and  leans  on  Germany.  The  connection  is 
very  intimate  and  strong.  In  its  trade,  in  its  industrial 
life,  in  its  technical  development,  Austria  is  strongly  de- 
pendent on  Germany.  According  to  the  latest  available 
data,  Austria  possesses  only  one-fifth  the  capital  of  Ger- 
many. She  requires  capital  in  order  to  utilise  more  effi- 
ciently her  natural  resources,  her  mines,  her  enormous 
water  power  (now  largely  fallow),  the  mountain  streams 
of  Styria,  Carniola,  Carinthia;  to  build  electric  plants, 
factories,  mills.  As  it  is,  though,  vast  sums  of  German 
money  are  invested  in  the  cotton  mills,  the  cloth  mills, 
paper  mills,  the  arms  and  munition  plants,  the  iron  and 
steel  works  of  Bohemia  and  Styria.  Many  of  the  tech- 
nical directors  there  are  Germans.  Many  of  the  German 
secret  processes  of  manufacture,  including  those  in  chem- 
istry and  the  dye  industry,  enable  Austria  to  hold  her 
own. 

This  is  just  a  hasty  and  incomplete  synopsis  of  actual 
economic  conditions. 

Of  course  it  is  true  that  this  dependence  on  Germany 
is  not  flattering  to  Austrian  self-respect.  Many  there 
before  and  during  this  war  turned  in  their  thoughts  to 
America.  And  let  me  say  right  here  that  despite  all  the 
recent  events  the  feeling  of  the  Austrian  and  Hungarian 
people  (as  distinguished  from  their  governments)  has 
remained  steadfastly  friendly  to  America.  One  strong 
reason  for  Austria-Hungary's  reluctance  to  break  off 
diplomatic  relations  with  this  country  was  the  hope  that 
after  the  war  America  might  aid  them  in  building  up 
their  neglected  country  economically.    To  illustrate  this 


324    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

I  have  merely  to  recall  what  Dr.  Ernst  von  Koerber,  the 
late  premier,  said  to  me  as  recently  as  last  September. 

Dr.  von  Koerber,  who  was  since  once  more  prevailed 
upon  to  accept  the  Austrian  premiership  and  who  is  with- 
out question  one  of  the  clearest  minds  of  his  country,  said 
to  me  on  that  occasion  that  he  strongly  hoped  for  Ameri- 
can financial  support  and  economic  co-operation  in  the 
restoration  and  upbuilding  of  the  Dual  Monarchy.  He 
spoke  with  good  judgment  of  the  hitherto  insufficient  ex- 
ploitation of  Austria-Hungary's  natural  resources,  which 
he  called  *' scarcely  tapped"  as  yet.  He  discoursed  both 
with  animation  and  admiration  on  the  wonderful  spirit 
of  enterprise  innate  in  Americans,  and  referred  feelingly 
to  the  universal  sympathy  entertained  by  all  classes  of 
the  people  of  Austria-Hungary  for  the  United  States. 

But  while  that  hope  has  now  probably  vanished  for 
good,  there  remain  so  many  solid,  so  many  selfish  grounds 
for  Austria  to  look  to  Germany  for  her  economic  re- 
demption and  advancement  after  the  war,  that  it  were 
idle  to  blind  oneself  to  the  fact.  One  more  such  reason  I 
may  cite  here,  and  a  potent  one.  I  refer  to  the  plan  of 
linking  the  North  Sea  to  the  Black  Sea.  This  is  a  gigan- 
tic project,  one  calculated  to  bring  the  peoples  and  coun- 
tries bordering  on  the  route  into  closest  economic  contact 
to  their  mutual  advantage,  and  moreover  a  project  which 
is  already  beyond  the  initial  stages.  Ever  since  the  early 
spring  of  1915  the  press  of  Germany  and  of  Austria- 
Hungary  has  been  engaged  in  propaganda  work  in  behalf 
of  this  idea,  and  by  this  time  the  respective  governments 
have  adopted  it. 

To  put  it  in  a  nutshell,  the  scheme  consists  in  connect- 
ing the  four  chief  rivers  of  Germany,  the  Elbe,  the 
Weser,  the  Rhine,  and  the  Oder,  by  means  of  shipping 
canals,  with  the  Danube,  at  Ulm,  South  Germany,  and 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS  325 

thence  to  improve  the  Danube  itself  all  along  through 
Austria-Hungary,  Serbia,  Rumania,  as  far  as  the  Black 
Sea  and  Constantinople.  At  present  the  total  length  of 
the  inland  waterways  of  Germany  is  8,570  miles,  and  the 
record  of  1913  shows  that  through  these  waterways 
56,657,000  tons  of  goods  were  carried,  19,717,000  tons 
of  this  being  for  export,  23,233,000  tons  for  imports.  By 
perfecting  this  existing  system  the  river  traffic,  so  much 
less  expensive  than  that  by  rail,  can  be  expanded  enor- 
mously. In  1913,  for  instance,  5,762,000  tons  of  goods 
were  carried  in  21,000  vessels  by  internal  waterways  to 
Hamburg.  After  the  completion  of  the  North-Sea-Black- 
Sea  project,  ships  of  1,000  tons  each  can  be  sent  from  the 
Bosphorus  to  Hamburg  and  vice  versa,  trebling  the  bulk 
of  this  internal  traffic  or  more.  And  in  its  essential  ele- 
ments the  whole  plan  has  already  been  adopted  and  parts 
of  it,  such  as  the  widening  of  the  Rhine-Danube  Canal, 
are  in  process  of  construction.  Without  any  doubt  not 
only  Germany  but  also  Austria-Hungary  and  the  Balkan 
States  will  be  greatly  benefited.  And  for  carrying  out 
the  entire  plan,  German  capital,  imposts,  and  taxes  will 
be  invested  to  the  tune  of  hundreds  of  millions,  amount- 
ing to  more  than  two  thirds  of  the  whole. 

Thus,  at  every  step,  in  vital  points,  the  material  inter- 
ests of  Austria-Hungary  and  of  Germany  tally.  No 
inconsiderable  portion  of  the  big  war  loan  of  Austria- 
Hungary  has  been  subscribed  by  Germans.  Everywhere 
and  always  the  hand  of  the  powerful  neighbour  and  ally 
is  felt. 

Another  point.  When  war  broke  out,  Austria-Hungary 
was  not  prepared  for  it.  In  fact,  she  was  less  prepared 
in  a  military  sense  than  any  of  the  other  belligerents. 
This  fact  has  received  little  attention  abroad,  but  it  is 
incontrovertible.    I  passed  through  those  days  in  Vienna, 


326    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

and  I  know  whereof  I  speak.  It  was  due  to  the  Austrian 
and  Hungarian  parliaments  themselves  that  the  mon- 
archy's army  presented,  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  Great 
War,  a  pitiable  spectacle,  nothing  less.  The  valour  of 
her  men  cannot  be  denied.  But  I  am  referring  to  her 
military  organisation. 

For  a  number  of  years  the  joint  government,  through 
the  Minister  of  War  (who  acts  for  Austria  and  Hungary 
both)  and  the  naval  secretary,  had  urged  in  both  parlia- 
ments a  better  state  of  preparedness.  It  was  all  in  vain. 
Hungary  demanded  that  her  army  contingents  be  put  en- 
tirely under  her  own  control  and  that  her  ''army  lan- 
guage'^ be  Magyar  instead  of  German.  This  the  old  em- 
peror refused  to  accede  to,  believing  that  it  would  be 
destructive  of  army  efficiency.  Without  it  the  Hungarian 
parliament  would  not  consent  to  army  reform.  In  Aus- 
tria, again,  it  was  similar.  There  the  majority  in  parlia- 
ment made  a  vote  in  favour  of  army  reconstruction  de-* 
pendent  on  racial  and  nationalistic  concessions  which  the 
government  felt  itself  unable  to  promise. 

In  that  way  it  happened  that  when  war  really  did  come, 
Austria-Hungary  had  only  one  thing:  a  good  army  of 
the  first  line,  composed  of  the  young  men  in  active  serv- 
ice, together  with  the  first  portion  of  the  reserves — men 
between  20  and  28,  the  best  of  her  fighting  men — in  all 
numbering  about  600,000.  With  these  she  faced  Serbia 
first,  and  then  Russia's  millions.  Her  system  of  military 
organisation  was  at  fault.  With  these  600,000  she  did 
splendidly  at  first;  her  men  rushed  at  the  Russian  le- 
gions so  gallantly,  faced  enormous  odds  so  valiantly,  as 
to  score  a  number  of  victories,  at  Rawaruska,  etc.  But 
this  lasted  only  until  Russia  had  massed  her  strength, 
or  rather  a  small  part  of  it. 

Then  inevitably  had  to  come  retreat,  abandonment  of 


CONCLUDING  EEMAEKS  327 

the  larger  part  of  Galicia,  while  Germany  had  to  send 
strong  reinforcements  hurriedly  to  her  ally  and  thus  give 
up  her  initial  war  plans  in  France.  Meanwhile,  Austria- 
Hungary  had  to  summon,  in  rapid  succession,  one  con- 
tingent after  another  of  her  veterans  in  civil  life  (up  to 
48)  to  the  colours,  and  to  equip  them,  drill  them,  harden 
them  for  the  severe  campaigns  to  come — laboriously, 
and  by  straining  every  resource  and  every  nerve,  trying 
to  make  up  for  the  serious  deficiencies  in  her  military 
armour  that  the  wrongheadedness  of  her  own  parlia- 
ments had  occasioned.  It  was  the  same  with  her  small 
navy.  There  was  a  time — and  it  lasted  for  months,  say, 
from  October  1914,  to  April  1915 — ^when,  had  it  not 
been  for  Hindenburg  and  his  brilliant  successes  against 
Russia,  the  monarchy  must  have  succumbed  and  would 
have  been  invaded  as  far  as  Vienna.  These  were  the 
days  when  Przemysl  fell  and  the  Russians  stood  before 
Cracow  and  in  the  Carpathian  passes,  in  sight  of  the 
Hungarian  lowlands.  Germany  alone  during  that  period 
of  the  struggle  saved  Austria-Hungary  from  destruc- 
tion. 

From  this  episode,  too,  dated  the  estrangement  be- 
tween Kaiser  William  and  Emperor  Francis  Joseph.  The 
latter  sat  sulking  in  Schonbrunn.  He  had  never  cared 
for  his  younger  Hohenzollern  colleague  on  the  throne, 
always  regarding  him  as  a  rash  young  man,  a  mushroom 
monarch ;  there  was  very  little  in  common  between  them, 
no  true  sympathy.  William,  the  younger  ruler,  had  cast 
the  blame  for  the  disastrous  turn  things  had  taken  at 
that  time  on  Austria,  on  Francis  Joseph,  and  the  latter 
again  had  overestimated  the  military  resources  and  the 
willingness  to  assist  him  of  the  other.  For  eighteen 
months  William  did  not  come  near  his  ally,  and  when  he 


328    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

finally  did,  in  the  summer  of  1916,  the  visit  was  only  as 
a  matter  of  cold  formality. 

Nevertheless,  throughout  the  war  Germany's  word  be- 
came law.  Every  military  measure  was  copied  from  her 
in  Austria-Hungary.  If  Germany  had  resolved  on  a 
certain  step,  that  was  sufficient  for  her  ally  to  sanction 
it.  That  was  held  unanswerable  logic.  And  finally,  after 
the  serious  Austrian  reverses  against  Russia  in  Galicia 
last  summer,  reverses  mainly  due  to  carelessness  on  the 
part  of  several  Austrian  archdukes  (since  retired  in  dis- 
grace) commanding  at  that  front,  German  leadership 
superseded  Austrian  even  there.  The  Hindenburg  front 
now  included  all  up  to  Rumania.  The  whole  Austrian 
forces  (saving  those  at  the  Italian  front)  became  prac- 
tically German-led,  became  subsidiaries.  A  bitter  pill 
to  swallow  for  Austrian  and  Hungarian  pride,  of  course. 
But  on  the  other  hand,  a  feeling  of  security  under  this 
German  aegis  began  to  pervade  the  monarchy  which  be- 
fore had  been  sadly  lacking.  And  now  Germany  has  her 
way  in  everything  that  concerns  the  conduct  of  the  war, 
both  in  the  military  and  diplomatic  sense.  .  That  is  the 
simple  truth. 

Much  has  been  said  about  the  character  of  the  young 
Emperor  Carl.  At  first  many  expected  him  to  show 
greater  independence  regarding  relations  with  Germany. 
But  the  force  of  circumstances  must  of  necessity  govern 
him  as  they  did  his  predecessor.  Besides,  while  this 
young  ruler  has  a  number  of  estimable  qualities,  firm- 
ness is  scarcely  among  them.  Intellectually  he  is  bright, 
of  quick  perception,  rather  democratic  in  his  leanings. 
I  myself  have  seen  him,  not  many  months  before  his  ac- 
cession to  the  throne,  trundling  a  baby  carriage  under 
the  trees  in  the  Ringstrasse  of  Vienna.  The  soldiers 
at  the  front  all  adore  him.    He  is  so  cordial  and  unaf- 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS  329 

fected.    But  all  tliat  is  not  the  point  liere — Kaiser  Wil- 
liam's prestige  decidedly  overshadows  his. 

Will  Hungary  separate  from  Austria — now  or  in  the 
near  future? 

Hungary,  under  certain  conditions,  might.  There  is 
and  has  been  ever  since  1848,  in  fact  ever  since  Hungary 
fell  under  the  domination  of  Austria,  a  strong  separatist 
sentiment  in  Hungary.  The  Independence,  or  '48er, 
Party,  which  advocates  complete  separation,  exerts  an 
enormous  influence  throughout  the  country.  It  com- 
prises many  of  the  strongest  minds  of  Hungary,  men  like 
the  brothers  Karolyi,  Michael  and  Stephen,  Apponyi, 
Justh,  Ugron.  This  party  is  also  in  favour  of  conferring 
the  franchise  on  the  masses  who  are  at  present  deprived 
of  it  under  the  old  aristocratic  dispensation  of  which 
Count  Tisza,  leader  of  the  dominant  party,  is  the  chief 
spokesman.  Count  Andrassy,  of  the  Constitutional,  or 
'67er,  Party,  stands  with  his  followers  on  a  platform 
of  strict  interpretation  of,  and  adherence  to,  the  agree- 
ment of  1867,  granting  Hungary  a  limited  autonomy. 
The  Hungarian  parliament  has  been  in  session  during 
the  war,  and  frequent  attempts  have  been  made  to  oust 
Tisza  from  power  and  to  hold  a  general  election  with  the 
slogan  of  an  extension  of  the  ballot.  These  fierce  attacks 
on  the  status  quo  seem  now  succeeding.  However,  even 
within  the  ranks  of  the  dominant  party,  as  well  as  of  the 
Constitutional  Party,  there  are  many  champions  of  ulti- 
mate separation  and  independence. 

If  the  Entente  Powers  would  only  guarantee  to  Hun- 
gary complete  independence  and  full  integrity  of  her 
soil,  including,  of  course,  Transylvania,  the  Banat,  and 
Slavonia  (where  the  Rumanian  element  is  strong),  as 
well  as  the  retention  of  Bosnia  and  Hercegovina  (where 


330    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

the  population  is  chiefly  Serbian),  sentiment  would 
quickly  veer  around.  Hungary,  however,  could  not  tol- 
erate a  strong  Serbia,  because  that  would  mean  a  per- 
petual threat  to  herself.  Such  a  Serbia  would  be  a  piv- 
otal point  around  which  all  anti-Hungarian  intrigues 
would  turn.  It  would  be  a  rallying  centre  for  all  SoutH 
Slav  aspirations  and  that  would  be  synonymous  with  the 
end  of  Hungarian  power. 

Hungary,  it  must  be  remembered,  is  an  artificial  politi- 
cal creation.  The  kernel,  it  is  true,  the  lowlands  of  the 
Danube  and  the  Theiss,  is  Magyar.  But  that  means  only 
eight  millions,  against  fifteen  millions  of  Slavs  and  Ru- 
manians. The  Magyars  think  of  themselves  always  as  a 
"Herrenvolk,"  a  lordly  race,  one  which  by  reason  of 
central  geographical  position,  political  fitness,  cohesive- 
ness,  and  strong  racial  pride  domineers  over  the  ma- 
jority. 

All  through  the  war  Hungary's  attitude  has  been  pe- 
culiar. Account  must  be  taken  of  the  elemental  aversion 
felt  by  the  Hungarian  for  the  Austrian,  in  fact  for  the 
Teuton  as  a  race.  This  hatred  is  not  only  founded  in 
history.    It  is  instinctive. 

So,  then,  if  Hungary  could  be  assured  of  keeping  all 
the  territory  she  has,  I  verily  believe  an  instant  move- 
ment in  favour  of  complete  severance  from  the  *' Aus- 
trian yoke"  would  set  in,  a  movement  which  would  be 
like  a  resistless  avalanche.  But  the  Entente  Powers,  for 
the  first  twelvemonth  of  the  war  trying  with  the  Hun- 
garians persuasion  by  every  means  of  publicity,  were 
in  the  end  unwise  enough  to  encourage  Russia  and  Ru- 
mania in  advancing  their  claims  to  Hungarian  territory. 
It  is  that  which  tunied  Hungary  at  last  into  a  unit  for 
utmost  resistance.  Up  to  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  and 
even  for  a  time  after  that,  Hungary  clung  to  her  old  sym- 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS  331 

pathy  for  England  and  France,  despite  everything. 
This  sjnupathy  was  founded  in  the  fact  that  England 
and  France,  during  the  Hungarian  Revolution  of  1848- 
49,  had  strongly,  though  unavailingly,  sided  with  the  sep- 
aration movement,  as  well  as  for  the  reason  that  Hun- 
gary, in  its  political  ideals  and  the  whole  frame  of  its 
mind,  approaches  the  Western  Powers  much  more  closely 
than  either  Austria  or  Germany.  Russia,  on  the  other 
hand,  she  has  always  dreaded  because  of  the  help  Russia 
gave  to  Austria  in  1849  in  suppressing  the  revolution 
and  in  bringing  about  the  surrender  of  Vilagos.  As  to 
America,  Hungary  has  never  forgotten  the  hospitality 
shown  here  to  Kossuth,  and  pro-American  feeling  is  gen- 
eral with  the  whole  people  of  every  rank  and  section.  Of 
that  I  had  occasion  amply  to  convince  myself  by  exten- 
sive travel  in  Hungary  during  the  war. 

Will  there  be  a  rising  for  Liberalism  in  Austria-Hun- 
gary? 

That  is  another  question  that  suggests  itself  in  the 
present  peculiar  circumstances.  In  my  answer  I  mean 
to  confine  myself  to  Austria  alone,  since  as  regards  Hun- 
gary the  foregoing  would  seem  a  sufficient  reply.  But 
a  brief  survey  of  the  Austrian  political  complexion  be- 
fore and  during  the  war  must  be  given.  I  shall  endeav- 
our to  simplify  this  matter  as  much  as  is  feasible,  and  to 
omit  non-essentials. 

To  put  it  briefly,  the  political  development  of  Austria- 
Hungary  since  1867  along  healthy  normal  lines  has  been 
greatly  hampered  by  the  nationalistic  problem.  As  the 
gift  of  unrestricted  manhood  suffrage  was  bestowed  on 
the  masses  of  Austria  (in  contradistinction  from  Hun- 
gary, where  broad  strata  of  the  population  of  voting  age 
are  excluded  from  the  franchise  to  this  very  hour),  they 
quickly  and  for  the  first  time  became  aware  of  the  enor- 


332    AUSTRIA-HUNG ABY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

mous  value  of  this  sharp  weapon  in  furthering  their  sep- 
arate racial  ideals  and  desires.  Before  the  untram- 
melled and  ruthless  use  of  this  weapon  went  down  every 
rampart  of  defence  the  hitherto  dominant  minority  in 
Austria — i.e.,  the  Austrians  of  Teuton  stock — had  erected 
in  time  agone.  They  began  to  feel  their  strength.  They 
began  to  make  use  of  their,  combinedly,  great  majority. 
A  breed  of  politicians  grew  up  under  these  new  condi- 
tions that  made  the  astute  manipulation  of  racial  preju- 
dices and  aversions,  of  jealousies  and  aims  apart,  their 
special  province,  their  stock-in-trade.  Unavoidably  the 
interests  of  the  whole  suffered.  Each  party,  each  small 
political  fraction  or  faction,  often  but  of  restricted  local 
importance,  with  a  horizon  narrowly  bound,  lost  sight  of 
the  common  good  and  devoted  itself  solely  to  what  they 
conceived  to  be  the  special  interests  of  their  ''national- 
ity," of  their  clan  or  tribe,  be  it  German  or  Slovene,  Ru- 
thenian  or  Pole,  Czech  or  Moravian,  Slovak  or  Hannak, 
Rumanian,  Italian,  or  Ladin ;  for  all  these  races  or  racial 
fragments  had  millions  or  hundreds  of  thousands  of  their 
own  blood  forming  part  of  the  whole  polyglot  mass. 
Once  launched  on  this  path  it  became  next  to  impossible 
to  retrace  steps,  to  pull  up  stakes  and  set  out  for  a  new 
common  meeting-ground. 

Beneath  this  racial  problem  and  its  insoluble  difficul- 
ties lies  the  political  tragedy — occasionally,  indeed,  wax- 
ing a  farce — of  Austria  during  the  last  fifty  years.  All 
internal  reforms  on  a  large  scale  grew  impossible,  be- 
cause Parliament  could  never  be  united  on  such  a  pro- 
gramme; because  there  w^ere  ever  more  pressing  local 
and  nationalistic  advantages  to  be  striven  for;  because 
each  legislative  measure  was  the  result  of  bargains  be- 
tween a  score  of  conflicting  interests.  And  always  plans 
for  the  common  weal  had  to  be  shelved  in  favour  of  pica- 


CONCLUDINa  REMARKS  333 

yune  improvements,  appropriations,  or  separate  wishes. 
Besides,  obstructionist  tactics,  the  tool  of  the  weak,  flour- 
ished as  in  no  other  legislative  body.  Such  tactics  had 
to  be  tolerated,  because  every  one  of  the  parties  compos- 
ing Parliament  had  in  turn  to  employ  them  against  at- 
tempted coercion,  and  because  no  party  was  in  itself 
strong  and  numerous  enough  at  any  tone  to  be  able  to 
dispense  with  the  services  of  such  obstruction. 

To  the  visitor  at  a  session  of  the  Austrian  Parliament 
(housed,  let  it  be  said  in  parenthesis,  in  perhaps  the 
most  beautiful  and  artistic  structure  used  for  a  like  pur- 
pose anywhere  in  the  world),  the  impression  was  that 
of  an  inchoate  mass,  torn  by  conflicting  interests  and  held 
together  by  none.  There  has  probably  never  been  such 
a  national  representative  body  before  as  that. 

Yet  hidden  from  view  there  were  many  valuable  ele- 
ments— valuable  individually,  I  mean.  There  was  and 
is  a  strong  leaven  of  political  and  social  Liberalism  work- 
ing within  these  apparently  amorphous  groups.  Form- 
ing part  of  each  fraction  (and  I  will  not  inflict  on  the 
reader  the  enumeration  of  these  or  attempt  the  thankless 
task  of  placing  each  in  his  own  category),  there  is  in- 
variably a  smaller  cluster  of  men,  individually  eminently 
respectable  and  capable,  reaching  out  vainly  for  nobler 
ends,  tinctured  more  or  less  strongly  with  political  Lib- 
eralism, as  that  word  is  understood  in  countries  lying 
more  to  the  west. 

How  large  is  the  number  of  those  men?  Large  enough, 
at  any  rate,  to  form  the  nucleus  of  a  body  contending 
for  a  saner  and  more  advanced  system  of  popular  gov- 
ernment. But — and  there's  the  rub — these  men  are  scat- 
tered; are  divided  from  one  another  by  the  special  aims 
of  the  * '  nation ' '  or  race  to  which  they  belong ;  form  in  no 
sense  an  entity  and  never  present  a  united  front  for  any 


334    AUSTRIA-HUNGARY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

purpose  whatever.  And  now  I  come  to  the  crux  of  the 
matter.  Since  the  spring  of  1914  the  Austrian  Parlia- 
ment, after  a  particularly  exasperating  and  long-drawn 
fit  of  obstructionism,  completely  paralysing  for  months 
legislation  of  any  kind,  was  adjourned  indefinitely  by  the 
late  emperor.  In  a  way  the  constitution  permitted  this, 
as  it  also  permitted,  by  some  stretching  of  interpretation, 
the  interimistic  governing  of  the  country,  for  purely  ad- 
ministrative pui*poses,  by  means  of  Paragraph  XIV  of 
the  same  constitution.  The  war  intervened.  The  Aus- 
trian Government  has  found  it  most  convenient,  and  as- 
suredly less  troublesome,  to  continue  this  quasi-auto- 
cratic system  of  provisional  bureaucratic  rule.  Cabinet 
after  cabinet  has  tottered  since  and  hastened  to  its  fall, 
owing  to  inherent  difficulties  of  the  situation.  One  pre- 
mier, Count  Stuergkh,  was  assassinated.  Dates  for  the 
summoning  of  Parliament  to  resume  its  constitutional 
duties  were  fixed  repeatedly,  but  always  proved  illusory, 
until  mid- April  of  this  year,  when  the  internal  distress 
of  the  country  forced  measures  for  the  reconvening  of 
that  body.  As  to  what  this  parliament  (made  up 
throughout  of  members  elected  before  the  war)  mil  do, 
that  is  a  question.  This  much,  though,  is  certain:  that 
the  trend  toward  Liberalism  has  been  greatly  promoted 
by  the  events  of  the  war. 

However,  how  can  Liberalism,  though  undoubtedly  ex- 
isting in  Austria  in  the  rough,  so  to  speak — how  can  it 
crystallise!  How  can  it  assert  itself  in  the  concrete? 
How  can  it  play  a  dominant  role  under  any  circum- 
stances— at  least  under  circumstances  that,  at  this  writ- 
ing, seem  at  all  likely  to  arise?  How  can  these  Lib- 
erals impose  themselves  upon  the  government,  oust  the 
present  scarcely  constitutional  government,  with  Count 
Czemin,  the  foreign  minister,  as  its  brains,  and  Count 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS  335 

Clam-Martinic,  the  premier,  as  its  fignre-liead — both  of 
them,  by  the  way,  pure  Slavs,  pure  Czechs,  but  of  the 
time-serving  stripe  of  political  faith — and  set  up  some 
sort  of  really  representative  cabinet?    How,  indeed? 

The  answer  seems  despairingly  difficult.  In  times  of 
a  desperate  war,  with  martial  law  stifling  every  expres- 
sion of  real  sentiment,  both  in  press  and  public  life — but 
of  ''public  life"  there  is,  indeed,  none  at  present,  fhere 
has  not  been  since  early  in  1914 — with  the  whole  execu- 
tive and  administrative  machinery  under  the  absolute 
control  of  the  present  cabinet  and  of  the  young  and  un- 
tried emperor;  with  a  censorship  many  degrees  stricter 
than  that  obtaining  in  Germany;  and  with  the  whole  ci- 
vilian population  cowed,  half-starved,  listless,  apathetic 
to  an  incredible  degree — how,  indeed,  should  Liberalism 
triumph? 

Unless,  in  fact,  one  of  those  strange  incidents  should 
arise  which  the  history  of  mankind  seems  never  tired 
of  evolving  at  unforeseen  moments ;  some  such  chain  of 
apparently  trivial  circumstances  that  turned  Russian 
czardom  out  of  power  overnight.  Who  knows?  In  this 
war  the  unexpected  has  happened  before;  everything 
seems  thinkable;  everything  is  on  the  cards.  But  only  if 
some  such  cataclysm  should  suddenly  overtake  the  House 
of  Habsburg  does  a  near  victory  of  Liberalism  in  Aus- 
tria seem  feasible  at  this  moment. 

And  lastly,  will  there  be  a  change  along  racial  lines  ? 

This  question  can  hardly  be  answered  in  the  same 
broad  way  in  which  it  is  phrased.  But  certain  things  can 
be  taken  for  granted.  Two  facts  have  impressed  them- 
selves unmistakably  during  these  last  three  years.  To 
wit,  first,  that  the  only  large  element  of  population  in  the 
whole  of  Austria  that  has  demonstrably  behaved  with 
absolute  loyalty  and  devotion,  and  shown  a  spirit  of  sac- 


336    AUSTRIA-HUNG AEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

rifice  scarcely  inferior  to  tliat  in  Germany  itself,  is  the 
Austrians  of  Teuton  stock.  And  second,  that  all  the  oth- 
ers have  manifested,  in  varying  degree,  dissatisfaction 
and  political  unreliability,  notably  the  Czechs  of  Bohe- 
mia, the  Ruthenians  of  Galicia,  the  Serbs  of  South  Hun- 
gary, Bosnia,  and  Hercegovina,  and  the  Southern  Slavs 
of  Istria,  Dalmatia,  and  Croatia. 

Disaffection  has  unquestionably  permeated  most 
deeply  and  insidiously  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Czech  na- 
tionality in  Austria.  Of  that  there  was  abundant  proof 
during  the  war.  Confining  myself  only  to  things  wit- 
nessed by  myself  or  heard  in  Vienna  on  absolutely  re- 
liable evidence,  and  leaving  wholly  aside  the  extrava- 
gant stories  of  Bohemian  risings  and  massacres  that  ap- 
peared, from  time  to  time,  in  the  press  elsewhere,  there 
remains  a  strong  enough  substratum  of  truth  to  warrant 
one  in  making  the  statement  above.  Thus,  in  compari- 
son to  their  numbers,  the  Czechs  have  furnished  by  far 
the  largest  contingent  of  Austrian  prisoners  of  war. 
Whole  regiments  of  them  have  yielded  themselves,  al- 
most without  a  shot,  to  Russians  and  Serbs.  Two  Czech 
regiments  were  stricken  from  the  army  rolls.  Wholesale 
confiscations  of  Czech  property  because  of  treasonable 
practices  were  published  officially.  The  criminal  trial  for 
high  treason  of  Dr.  Kramarz,  the  ablest  Czech  political 
leader  and  parliamentarian,  and  of  his  confederates, 
which  took  up  three  months  last  summer  and  brought  out 
astounding  revelations,  ending  in  conviction  and  death 
sentences,  showed  beyond  peradventure  that  the  whole  of 
the  Czech  population  (approximately  six  millions)  is 
honeycombed  with  anti-Austrian  aspirations.  The  course 
pursued  by  Professor  Masaryk  and  other  Czech  intellec- 
tuals, though  carried  on  in  exile,  points  to  the  same  con- 
clusion. 


CONCLUDING  EEMARKS  337 

These  are  just  a  few  sample  facts  which  I  might  mul- 
tiply. In  Croatia  and  Dalmatia  the  showing  made  was 
similar,  although  at  the  various  fronts  these  men,  born 
warriors,  to  whom  fighting  is  a  treat,  did  well  enough. 
But  the  bulk  of  their  political  leaders  expatriated  them- 
selves soon  after  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  and  went  over 
into  the  camp  of  the  Allies.  At  one  time  twenty  members 
of  the  Dalmatian  legislature  thus  turned  their  backs  on 
Austrian  rule. 

Now  what  in  the  face  of  all  this  is  the  Austrian  gov- 
ernment to  do  1  What  in  the  face  of  widespread  Serbian, 
Croatian,  and  Rumanian  disaffection  is  the  Hungarian 
government  to  do? 

There  are,  of  course,  provided  the  Habsburgs  retain 
their  throne  (which,  however,  seems  by  no  means  a  fore- 
gone conclusion),  two  alternatives  open.  The  one  would 
be  increased  repression  of  the  Slavs  and  the  re-establish- 
ment of  old-time  hegemony  of  the  Austrians  of  Germanic 
stock,  and  of  an  increased  Magyar  domination  over  the 
other  races  in  Hungary.  But  Austria  tried  that  policy 
in  Hungary  for  eighteen  years,  viz.,  from  1849  (when 
the  revolution  had  been  drowned  in  blood  and  the  gal- 
lows had  reaped  an  aftermath)  to  1867,  and  had  found 
it  not  to  answer. 

The  other  alternative  would  be  a  frank  recognition  of 
the  untenable  situation  sketched  above,  and  the  honest 
and  sweeping  attempt  to  satisfy  the  racial  or  national 
aspirations  for  complete  autonomy  that  are  felt  by  the 
various  Slav  populations,  as  well  as  by  the  Rumanian 
one,  in  both  Austria  and  Hungary. 

A  number  of  circumstances  that  have  come  to  my 
knowledge  while  in  Vienna  strongly  incline  me  to  the  be- 
lief that  the  last-named  policy  will  be  adopted. 

But  to  do  so  is  not  easy.    It  involves,  for  one  thing,  in- 


338    AUSTRIA-HUNGAEY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

justice  to  the  Teuton  element  in  the  Austrian  and  Hun- 
garian population.  For  as  to  Hungary  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  there,  too,  about  three  millions  of  Ger- 
manic strain  are  living,  descendants  of  Germans  who, 
at  the  invitation  of  Hungarian  kings,  settled  there  cen- 
turies ago.  But  the  ten  millions  of  Teutonic  Austrians, 
they  who,  as  has  been  freely  acknowledged,  proved  the 
most  faithful  to  the  dynasty  and  to  the  rule  of  the  mon- 
archy— what  would  be  their  ultimate  fate  if  the  policy  of 
racial  (i.e.,  Slavic)  reconciliation  became  the  settled  Aus- 
trian programme?  This  they  have  begun  to  ask  them- 
selves of  late.  Would  not  these  ten  millions  be  in  the 
end  swallowed  up,  body  and  soul,  in  the  Slavic  flood  sur- 
rounding them — a  Slavic  flood,  it  must  be  kept  in  mind, 
outnumbering  the  Teutonic  Austrians  two  to  one  ? 

In  view  of  this  prospect,  by  no  means  relished  by  them 
(for  they  still  justly  pride  themselves  on  the  historic 
part  they  have  played  for  many  centuries  in  their  Danu- 
bian  and  mountain  lands  to  the  east,  the  part  of  ' '  civilisa- 
tion bearers*'),  of  late  many  of  these  Austrians  of  Ger- 
manic lineage  turn  their  eyes  longingly  toward  Germany 
herself.  But  a  glance  at  the  map  will  show  the  almost 
irreconcilable  diflQculties  in  the  way  of  their  becoming 
amalgamated  with  the  body  of  their  other  German-speak- 
ing kindred.  However,  the  problem  has  not  as  yet  pre- 
sented itself  to  the  vast  majority  of  Austrian  Teutons  at 
all.  And  where  there  are  some — the  German  Bohemians, 
for  example — who  would  rejoice  to  be  joined  to  Ger- 
many proper,  there  are  many  more  that  would  not. 
From  my  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  German  Austri- 
ans, I  must  say  that  the  idea  of  being  incorporated  with 
the  Kaiser's  empire  seems  by  no  means  palatable  to  the 
vast  majority  of  them.  There  are  all  sorts  of  reasons. 
They,  the  Austrian  Teutons,  are  of  an  easy  disposition, 


CONCLUDING  REMARKS  339 

for  one  thing,  and  they  dread  the  strenuous  life,  the  se- 
verely laborious  existence  that  would  be  their  portion 
in  the  event  of  such  a  union.  Besides,  as  must  be  pointed 
out  here,  the  statecraft  of  Germany  considers  the  con- 
tinued existence  of  an  Austria-Hungary  of  undiminished 
size  and  population  indispensable  to  her,  Germany's, 
own  peace  and  welfare. 

Briefly,  then,  the  whole  problem  is  bristling  with  dif- 
ficulties, some  of  them  inherent  and  all  of  them  hard  to 
overcome.  Nevertheless,  I  feel  convinced  that  the  only 
expedient,  either  to  solve  the  racial  question  in  Austria- 
Hungary  or,  at  any  rate,  to  tide  her  over  for  another  in- 
definite period,  is  the  one  which  I  have  attempted  to  out- 
line in  the  foregoing;  and  that  being  so,  probably  the 
means  will  be  found.  It  must  be  reconciliation  of  the 
races  living  side  by  side,  or  nothing.  It  must  be  all  but 
complete  self-government  for  each  national  and  geo- 
graphical entity  within  the  borders  of  Austria-Hungary, 
a  recognition  of  the  full  rights  of  each  idiom,  of  each  ra- 
cial fragment,  to  develop  unhindered,  to  maintain  its 
peculiar  traits  and  talents,  its  own  *' personality, "  in 
short.  Instead  of  greater  centralisation  (which  has 
often  been  proposed  as  a  remedy)  it  must  be  greater  de- 
centralisation. 

If  not,  I  feel  sure,  the  whole  monarchy  will  go  to  pieces, 
with  or  without  outside  help,  and  this  within  a  very  short 
time.  When  the  war  broke  out,  it  was  probably  the  gen- 
eral expectation  that  Austria-Hungary  could  not  with- 
stand and  survive  the  shock.  On  the  contrary,  the  war, 
the  common  danger,  has  acted  as  a  cement,  knitting  the 
whole  firmly  together.  But  only  for  a  time.  The  in- 
ternal strain  continues.  Its  effects  have  been  neutral- 
ised, so  to  speak,  by  the  war  which  brought  all  the  races 


340     AUSTBIA-HUNGABY:  POLYGLOT  EMPIRE 

together  in  the  same  trenches,  to  fight  or  to  die.  But 
after  the  war  the  abnormal  pressure  will  be  renewed, 
and  the  internecine  strife  will  be  resumed  with  more  ar- 
dour than  ever — unless  there  be  far-going  reconciliation, 
far-going  justice,  far-going  government  by  the  people; 
a  United  States  of  Austria-Hungary,  in  fact,  or  some- 
thing like  it. 

Now,  the  Austrian  parliament  has  met  and  at  this  writ- 
ing is  just  as  contentious,  just  as  much  torn  by  race 
strife  as  ever.  Evidently,  until  after  new  elections  noth- 
ing can  be  expected.  The  upper  house  (or  house  of  lords) 
with  its  smaller  membership  of  226  (against  the  lower 
one's  533),  is  governed  by  a  more  reasonable  spirit,  it  is 
true.  But  the  upper  house  is  not  empowered  by  the  con- 
stitution to  originate  legislation.  Finally,  another  cabi- 
net of  short  duration  has  resigned.  It  is  chaos.  In  Hun- 
gary storm  signals  of  all  kinds  have  been  hoisted.  Tisza 
has  fallen  from  power,  and,  of  course,  over  the  franchise 
enlargement  problem.  Clouds  in  which  the  lightning 
slumbers  are  lowering  on  the  horizon.  Factional  spirit 
is  as  strong  as  ever. 

Who  can  tell  the  future? 

Meanwhile  the  ''Mittel-Europa"  idea,  first  solemnly 
and  rather  convincingly  promulgated  by  the  German 
Reichstag  member,  Naumann,  is  slowly  pushed  forward. 
To  weld  the  territory  of  the  four  powers — Germany,  Aus- 
tria-Hungary, Bulgaria  and  Turkey — into  a  solid  block 
would,  of  course,  solve  the  question  of  Austro-Hungarian 
disintegration  more  or  less  completely.  For  such  a  con- 
solidation, such  a  ''pooling  of  issues"  would  necessarily 
have  a  restorative  effect  on  Austria-Hungary.  It  would 
make  each  member  stronger  in  eveiy  sense.  But  before 
the  "Mittel  Europa"  idea  can  be  seriously  discussed,  the 
war  itself  must  be  decided.    In  their  present  mood,  their 


CONCLUDING  EEMARKS  341 

present  frame  of  mind,  none  of  the  Entente  Powers 
would  even  dream  of  permitting  the  setting-up  of  such  a 
powerful  system,  and  as  we  remember  even  President 
Wilson  has  strongly  pronounced  against  it. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Adlersberg,  cave  wonder  of,  11 
Agram,  race  riots,  68 
Albert  of  Austria,  30 
Albreeht  of  Habsburg,  29 
Alfold,  7 

core  of  Hungary,  121 
Alfonso,  King,  159 
Alliances,  matrimonial,  27 
Alsace,    and    Rudolph    of    Habs- 

burg,  28 
American  Red  Cross,  19 
Andrassy,  Count  Julius,  38 

during  session,  119 
Andrew,  King,  of  Hungary,  invit- 
ing the  Saxons  to  settle,  10 
Antipathy,   racial,   between   Slavs 
and  Teutons,  78 

Magyar  and  Teuton,  80 
Apafy,  Prince  Michael,  34 
Aristocracy,  Austrian,  242 
Artstetten,  160 
Augusta,  Archduchess,  175 
Ausgleich,  compromise  between 
Austria  and  Hungary,  37 

features    infused    into    it     by 
Count  Beust,  70 

spirit  of  it,  71 

economic  results,  130 
Austria,  parliamentary  life  of,  92 

deficient  control,  129 

Jewish  element  in,  143 

Christian  Socialists,  144 


Austria,  analphabets  in,  145 

war  consolidation,  186 
Austria  erit  in  orbe  ultima,  motto 

of  the  Habsburgs,  26 
Authority,  watchword,  138 
Autonomy,  measure  of,  for  Slavic 

provinces,  20 
Avars,  29 

Austria-Hungary,  woman  of,  de- 
scription, 20 
political  liberalism  in,  141 
Jewish  element  in,  143 
her    unpreparedness    for    war, 
325 

Babenbergs,     ancient     rulers     of 

Austria,  45 
Bakony  forest,  121 
Baltazzi  Aristide,  242 
Banat,  Teutons  of,  104 
Barczy,  Dr.,  211 
Bavaria,  and  racial  affinity  with 

Austrian  Teutons,  49 
Bavarians,  their  Celtic  admixture, 

49 
Belgrade,  152 
Berchtold,  Count,  278 
Berlin,  university  of,  18 
Bethlen  Gabor,  34 
Beust,  Count,  37 
and  Bohemia,  41 
and  the  Ausgleich,  70 


345 


346 


INDEX 


Beust,    Count,   and   the   Trias   in 

Germany,  71 
Bismarck,    influence    on    Austria- 
Hungary,  72 

and  his  Memoirs,  87 

saying  by,  95 
Bogomiles,  a  sect,  66 
Bohemia,  characterisation  of,  16 

state  of  education  in,  18 

Charles  IV  of,  29 

acquired  by  Habsburgs,  40 

problem  of,  112 

cloth  mills  of,  231 
Bohemian  Forest,  and  its  health 

resorts,  11 
Boleslav,  Duke  of  Bohemia,  39 
Boleslav  the  Cruel,  123 
Boroevic,  Gen.,  265 
Bosnia,  sport  and  game  in,  8 
Bosnians,  66 
Bruck  on  Leitha,  278 
Budapest,  2 

university  of,  19 

woman  of,  21 

Magyarisation  of,  51 

official  statistics,  208 

war  visits  to,  317 
Bukovina,  when  acquired,  9 

Cabrinovie,  Gavril,  99 
Capuchin  mausoleum,  157 
Carinthia,  province  of,  16 

analphabets  in,  18 

fell  to  Austria,  30 
Carl  Ludwig,  Archduke,  175 
Carl  Stephan,  Archduke,  175 
Carniola,  province  of,  16 

fell  to  Austria,  30 
Carpathian  range,  8 

victims  of  campaign  there,  196 


Carso,  225 

Catholic  Church  in  Austria,  23 

Cattaro,  Dalmatian  coast  town,  12 

Centrifugal  agencies,  182 

Charlemagne,  founder  of  Ostmark 
or  Austria,  29 

Charles  IV,  Emperor,  29 

Charles  V,  Emperor,  27 

Charles  VI,  Emperor,  35 

Chemical  industry,  231 

Clam-Martinic,  Count,  325 

Concordat,   between   Vatican  and 
Austria-Hungary,  86 

Control  stations,  sanitary,  290 

Constitutional  Party,  of  Hungary, 
38 

Cornwall,  Richard  of,  28 

Coronation  Hill,  35 

Cortez,  27 

Cor\dnus,  Matthias,  34 

Counter-Reformation,  31 

Cracow,  in  Galieia,  university  of, 
18 

Criminality,  youthful,  202 

Croatia,  illiteracy  in,  18 

Crown,  ancient  Genuan  imperial, 
154 

Curzola,  island  in  Adriatic,  12 

Czartoryski,  Prince,  177 

Czech,    rivalry   with    Teuton    ele- 
ment in  Bohemia,  18 

Czechs,  historical  facts,  39 
political  rebirth  of,  82 

Czernin,  Count,  334 

Czernowitz,  university  of,  18 

Czikos,  Hungarian  horseherd,  7 

Dachstein,  highest  peak  in  Styria, 

250 
Dalmatia,  illiteracy  in,  17 


INDEX 


347 


Danube,  12 

Deak,  140 

Death    rate,    at    war    prisoners' 

camps,  291 
Delegations,  joint  body,  134 
Deputies,  Chambers  of,  134 
Deutschmeister,  Vienna  regiment, 

190 
Dimitrieff,  General,  194 
Dioeletiiui,  Emperor,  and  Salona, 

12 
Dniester,  river,  47 
Doline,  225 
Donna  Blanea,  167 
Drave,  river,  12 
Dreibund,  232 
Dye  industry,  231 
Dual    Monarchy,    illegitimacy    in 

the,  24 
name  of,  28 
inner  mechanism  of,  45 
delegations,  134 

Ebner-Eschenbaeh,  Baroness,  138 
Eger,   Bohemia,   prisoners'   camp, 

281 
Eiselsberg,  Prof,  von,  254 
Elias,  Prince,  178 
Entente  Powers,  329 
Erdody,  Count,  133 
Ernest,  Archduke,  173 
Espionage,    by    means    of   needle 

pricks,  300 
Este  line,  163 
Estrangement,     between     Francis 

Joseph   and  Kaiser  William, 

327 
"Eternal    minority,"    applied    to 

Teutons  in  Austria,  95 
Etiquette,  Spanish,  in  Vienna,  159 


Famine,  influence   of,   on  health, 
208 
riots,  209 

Ferdinand  of  Austria,  34 

Flims,  203 

Fischer,  Colonel,  and  his  defense 
of  Bukovina,  9 

Food  cards,  207 

Food  dictator,  214 

Forest  jieasantry,  of  Styria,  229 

Francis,  of  Lorraine,  163 

Francis  Ferdinand,  Archduke,  as- 
sassinated, 99 
his  Trias  idea,  101 

Francis  Joseph,  Emperor,  35 
after  the  Peace  of  Prague,  71 
proclamation  in  1848,  90 
at  outbreak  of  war,  149 
and  the  Hungarians,  158 
tragedy  of  family  life  not  un- 
deserved, 172 

Francis  Salvator,  Archduke,  163 

Frederick,  Archduke,  67 
biogi-aphical  data,  170 

Frederick  III,  Emperor,  26 

Frederick,  King,  of  Prussia,  35 
at  war,  36 

French  Revolution,  scant  influ- 
ence of,  13 

Fugitives'  coffee  house,  259 

Galicia,  province  of,  regarding 
prevailing  illiteracy,  17 

German  Empire,  creation  of,  37 

German  Federation,  37 

Godollo,  158 

"Golden  Bull,"  34 

Gorgey,  Hungarian  general,  36 

Gradiska,  province  of,  and  school 
attendance,  47 


348 


INDEX 


Gravosa,  Dalmatian  coast,  12 

Graz,  university  of,  18 

Grisons,  57 

Guard,  parliamentary,  in  Hun- 
gary, 119 

Gypsies,  66 

Gyor,  Hungary,  prisoners'  camp, 
281 

Habichtsburg,  28 

Habsburg-s,  racial  descent  of  the, 
12 
marriage  accretions  of  the,  27 
of  non-German  stock,  149 
"Habsburg  lip,"  150 
house  of,  163 
fund,  177 

"Hausmacht,"  154 

Haynau,  Austrian  general,  36 

Hegemony,  Austrian,  in  Germany, 
37 

Heidelberg,  university  of,  18 

Hercegovina,  attractions  for 
sportsmen,  8 

"Herrenvolk,"  330 

High  Tatra,  scenery  and  game  in, 
8 

Hoarding,  of  provisions,  214 

Hofburg,  in  Vienna,  26 

Hohenwart,  Austrian  statesman, 
42 

Hohenzollerns,  36 

Hradsheen,  41 

Hungary,  parliamentarism  in,  93 
political  readjustment  of,  113 
aristocratic  basis  of,  120 
industrial  aspirations,  132 
Liberalism  there,  140 
land  policy,  141 
Jewish  element  in,  143 


Hungary,  effect  of  war,  185 
Hunnish  tribes,  48 
Hunyady,  John,  34 
Hussite  war,  41 

Idria,  232 

lUyrian  Kingdom,  55 

Independence  Party,  of  Hungary, 
37 

Investments,  foreign,  in  Austria- 
Hungary,  232 

Irredenta  movement,  264 

Istria,  Austrian  province,  illiter- 
acy in,  18 

Italian  element,  in  Dalmatia,  226 

Italicmissimi,  57 

Jesuit  domination,  in  Austria,  150 
Jewish    element,    in    Dual    Mon- 
archy, 143 
Jokai,  Maurus,  138 
Joseph,  Archduke,  175 
Joseph  II,  Emperor,  36 

failure    to    Germanise   his    em- 
pire, 54 
and  Prater,  157 

Kalnoky,  140 

Karl,  Emperor  and  King,  and  race 
strife,  73 
throne  speech  of,  107 

Karst,  225 

Koerber,  Dr.  Ernest  von,  Austrian 
statesman,  15 

Konigsgratz,  battle  of,  37 

Kossuth,  Louis,  dictator  of  Hun- 
gary in  1848-49,  94 

Kramarz,  Dr.,  336 

Krobatin,  General  von,  187 


INDEX 


349 


Ladenburg,  prisoners'  camp,  281 
Ladiners,  52 

partly  succumb  to  Italian  prop- 
aganda, 57 

their  folk  lore,  58 

their  refuge  town,  263 
Laibaeh,  race  riots,  68 
"Land  of  the  Beeches,"  see  Buko- 

vina,  46 
Languages,  of  intercourse  or  for 

official  use,  62 
Laudon,  151 
Laxenburg,  159 
Leipzig,  university  of,  18 
Leitha,     border    stream    between 

Austria  and  Hungary,  38 
Lemberg,  university  of,  18 
Leopold  I,  Emperor,  31 

and  Hungarian  risings,  34 
Leopold  Salvator,  Archduke,  167 
Lessina,  Dalmatian  isle,  12 
Liberalism,  political,  141 
Liechtenstein,  Prince,  242 
Linsingen,  General  von,  193 
Lissa,  off  Dalmatian  coast,  12 
"Little  Russians,"  see  Ukrainians, 
Littorale,  56 

Lower  Austria,   province  of,  47 
Louis,  King,  of  Hungaiy,  30 
Louis  XI  of  France,  148 
Louis  XIV,  and  the  Turks,  33 
Louis  Philippe,  of  France,  36 
Luther,  Martin,  27 
Luxemburg,  House  of,  29 

and  Napoleon  III,  67 


Magyar    language,    belonging    to 
Ural-Altaic  stock,  53 

Magyars,  the,  characteristics,  31 
domination  by,  106 

Mamaliga,      Rumanian      national 
dish,  10 

Mammoth  caves  of  StjTia,  recent- 
ly discovered,  11 

Maria  Josefa,  Princess,  165 

Maria  Theresa,  Empress,  35 
indifferentism,   150 

Marie  Louise,  162 

Marie  Theresa,   Archduchess,  248 

Marie  Valerie,  Archduchess,  163 

Marcs,  river,  31 

Masaryk,   Prof.,   336 

Max,  Archduke,  166 

Maximilian,   Emperor,  27 

Mazarin,  148 

Melk,   Benedictine   abbey   on    the 
Danube,  6 

"Melting  Pot"  theory,  61 

non-application    to    Dual    Mon- 
archy, 74 

Metternieh,  Prince  Clemens,  36 

Miramar,    chateau    near    Trieste, 
100 

"Mittel-Europa,"  340 

Moesia,  48 

Mohaes,  battle  of,  30 

Money  market,  French,  232 

Montenuovo,  Prince,  159 

Moravia,    province   of,    and    illit- 
eracy, 47 

Munich,  university  of,  18 


Magna  Charta,  and  King  Andrew  Napoleon  I  and  nation  strife,  54 

II  of  Hungary,  33  Napoleon  III,  and  the  race  prob- 
Magnates,  House  of,  134  lem,  55 

Himgarian,  141  Napoleonic  era,  36 


350 


INDEX 


Narenta,  swamps  of,  12 

Narishkine,  Princess,  288 

National  Hymns,  187 

Naumann,   Dr.   Friedrieh,  340 

Nettle  cloth,  219 

Nettle  fibre,  217 

Nicholas  I,  Emperor,  of  Russia,  36 

Nicholas  Nicholayevitch,  Grand- 
duke,  221 

Nitrogen,  as  fertiliser,  220 

Nizhni  Novgorod,  123 

Nobility,  Austrian,  with  no  racial 
ties,  153 

Norieum,  48 

North  Sea  fish,  205 

North  Sea-Blaek  Sea  Canal,  324 

Nourishment,  minimum  of  re- 
quired, 207 

Offspring,      illegitimate,       within 

monarchy,  22 
Ostmark,  or  Eastern  Marches,  29 
Otto,  Archduke,  165 
Ottocar  of  Bohemia,  29 

Pannonia,  31 
Parma  line,  163 
Passarowitz,  Peace  of,  137 
Paternalism,  as  shown  in  popular 

writings,   138 
"Peaceful  fusion,"  the  Habsburgs' 

failure  to  accomplish  it,  54 
Penfield,  Frederic  C,  late  U.   S. 

ambassador  in  Vienna,  17 
Pilsudski,    General,    commanding 

Polish  Legion,  307 
Pizarro,  27 
Poles,  of  Galieia,  as  oppressors  of 

Ukrainians,  58 


Pochlarn,    fief    from    Attila    the 
Hun,  6 

Pragmatic  sanction,  35 

Prague,  university  of,  18 
woman  of,  21 
Czechisation  of,  51 
race  riots  during  war,  68 

Prater,  157 

Presburg,  35 

Protheses,  252 

Provincial  chambers,  20 

Pruth,  river,  47 

Przemysl,  193 

Pskov,  republic  of,  123 

Puszta,  7 

Race  rivalry,  not  an  unmixed  evil, 

80 
Radziwill,  Prince,  177 
Ragusa,  Dalmatian  coast,  12 
Rainier,  Archduke,  174 
Rakoezy,  Francis  and  George,  34 
Red  Cross,   of  Austria,  241 
Red  Cross,  of  Hungary,  241 
Reichsdeutsche,   231 
Reichsrat,     Austrian     parliament, 

110 
Rhine-Danube  Canal,  325 
Richelieu,  148 
Richter,  Dr.  Gottfried,  217 
Rising,  Magyar,  of  1848-49,  77 
Romanseh,  57 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,  60 
Rovereto,  263 
Rudolph,  of  Habsburg,  28 
Rumanian,  orthodox  priesthood,  18 
Russia,  before  consolidation,  123 
Ruthenian,  46 
Ruthenian    peasantiy,    conditions 

of,  110 


INDEX 


351 


Ruthenian     peasantry,     illiteracy, 
111 
disaffection.  111 
Ryasan,  123 

Sabor,  Croatian  Diet,  102 

Salona,  ruins  of,  12 

Salzburg,  province  of,  and  school 
attendance,  47 
climate,  227 

Sarayevo,  66 

Save,  river,  12 

Savoy,  Prince  Eugene  of,  151 

Saxons,  of  Transylvania,  particu- 
lars about  the,  70 

Saybusch,  176 

Schonbrunn,  158 

Schwarzenberg,  Princes,  228 

Semmering,  attractions  of,  5 

Sereth,  river,  47 

"Sick  Man,"  Europe's,  32 

Sigismund,  Emperor,  30 

Skoda  Works,  237 

Slavonia,  district  in  southern 
Hungary,  and  illiteracy  there, 
18 

Slovak  sections  of  Hungary,  illit- 
eracy, 18 

Slovenes,  southern  Slavs,  48 

Sophia,  Archduchess,  36 

Staatsbahn,  235 

Statistics,  census,  of  1910,  bear- 
ing on  education  in  Austria, 

17 
Stamboul,  32 
St.  John,  Order  of,  195 
St.  Stephen,  cathedral  of,  30 
St,  Stephen's  crown,  all  political- 
ly embraced  by  Hungaiy,  47 
Sterz,  5 


Suabia,  jDossessions  of  Rudolph  of 

Ilabsburg  in,  28 
"Submerged"  minorities,  58 
Sudbahn,'  235 
Sunaric,  Dr.,  102 
Svatopluk,  early  ruler  of  Moravia, 

40 
Sydney  Smith,  saying  of,  117 
Stuergkh,  Count,  210 
Switzerland,  possessions  in,  28 
"Synthetic"  rubber,  220 
Szechenyi,  Count,  133 
Szeklers,   the  Magyar  element  in 

Transylvania,  10 

Taaffe,   Count,   42 

his  motto,  89 

reconciliation  plan,  140 
Teuton,    rivalry   with    Czech   ele- 
ment in  Bohemia,  18 
Theiss,  river,  12 
Theresienstadt,    Prisoners'    camp, 

280 
Thirty  Years'  War,  31 
Tisza,  Count  Stephen,  38 

the  "Man  of  Iron,"  118 
Tokoly,  Emeric,  34 
Toseana  line,  163 
Transylvania,  scenic  attractions  of, 
10 

added  to  Habsburg  crown,  34 
Trent,  263 
Trias  project,  101 
Trieste,  fell  to  Austria,  30 
Tw,  felix.  Austria,  nube,  27 
"Turkish  Peril,"  32 
Tyrol,   the,    province   in    Austria, 
state  of  education  in,  18 

Margaret    of,    surnanied   Maul- 
tasch,  27 


352 


INDEX 


Tyrol,  fell  to  Austria,  30 
Tyrolese  dolomite  range,  8 

Ueskiib,  79 

Ukrainian,  46 

Ulm,  324 

United  Catholics,  46 

Upper  Austria,  province  of,  16 

Venice,  56 
Vienna,  2 

University  of,  18 

eminence  in  surgery  there,  19 

woman  of,  characterisation,  21 

Siege  of,  32 

Congress  of,  36 

Celtic    and    Slavic    aborigines, 
50 

Teutonised  name  of,  50 

Slavisation  of,  51 

people  fond  of  court  life,  179 
Vilagos,  surrender  of,  36 


Vindobona,  50 
Vinds,  or  Vends,  50 

Waehau,  trijD  to  the,  6 

War  blind,  248 

"War  brides,"  318 

Waterways,  inland,  to  the  Black 

Sea,  325 
Weiskirebner,  Dr.,  210 
Wels,  detention  camp,  191 
White  Mountain,  battle  of  the,  30 
Wiener  Bankverein,  233 
William,  Emperor,  visit  to  Vienna, 

179 
Worms,  Diet  of,  27 

Zapolya,  John,  34 
Zara,  Dalmatian  coast,  12 
Zillerthal,  4 

Zips,  district  in  Hungary,  104 
Zupa,  village  council  in  Bohemia, 
123 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
i^   i-  This  book  is  DUE  on  tlie  laH  date  stamped  below. 


iVTvTTTXTMrTTJcoK" 


A.M.  P.M 

7l8l9!l0lll!l2!ll2!3|4l5iP 


^L  t^EC  7  -  1984 


l-V 


7.''  T  '^liT^''- 


W6l  OC  AON 


a  :i'  A  1 :2i  D  :^  :. 


Form  L9-Series  444 


OCO'n    I  H-Mf^L 

i\^AY  3  1  1973 
SEP    ^ 


iiffff! 

p^     000  027  1o' 


I 


ZcK'^  DO  NOT   REMOVE 

•^•■^thIs  book  card  . 


OnWe 


l-lfiijijlllliljl 
ill 


iiifliiiil 


=;^,ii,j|!.l|iil!lii 


iipiiiilii! 


IF™ 

t|l|ijifaj||«5!!i! 

Ifeiflpjllllf 

if ' 

mmmm 
iiiiflllill 


